Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To determine the incidence of newly diagnosed pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PEX) in residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota from 1976-1986. Many past studies have measured the prevalence of PEX, however to our knowledge none have measured its incidence in a population. Methods: We reviewed records of all patients residing in Olmsted County who were newly diagnosed with PEX from 1976-1986 using the database of the Rochester Epidemiology Project (REP). The REP is a medical record linkage system that tracks the occurrence of diseases among residents of Olmsted County, MN. These records were reviewed to confirm the initial diagnosis of PEX. Criteria to diagnose PEX were the presence of pseudoexfoliative material on one or more anterior segment structures such as the corneal endothelium, iris, pupillary margin, lens capsule, zonular fibers, ciliary body, and trabecular meshwork. Results: One hundred one patients were diagnosed with PEX. Eighty-one of the 101 patients were female, 20 were male. Average age in these 101 patients was 75+/-9 years. Incidence rates were adjusted to the 1990 US white population. The overall age and sex adjusted annual incidence of PEX was 6.5 per 100,000 population (95% CI 5.2-7.8). The age-adjusted incidence in males was 3.6 per 100,000 (95% CI 2.0-5.2) and in females was 8.6 per 100,000 (95% CI 6.7-10.6). PEX was increasingly common with age, changing from 0.4 per 100,000 at ages 40-49 to 45.6 per 100,000 at ages 70-79. Conclusion: In a defined population, the overall age and sex adjusted annual incidence of PEX was 6.5 per 100,000 population. The incidence rate in females was higher than the rate seen in males. PEX was increasingly common with advancing age.
Keywords: 354 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence