Abstract
Purpose :
Several studies have investigated the relationship between glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and the incidence of cataracts with conflicting results. One study concluded that G6PD deficiency was found more frequently in cataractous patients than in control subjects of Sardinian origin but a similar study done by another group in 2009 was unable to replicate the results in the same population. These studies have been conducted in small, isolated communities that vary greatly from our diverse patient population in the Bronx. We aim to look at the incidence of cataract in patients with G6PD deficiency in order to further evaluate how oxidative stress, characteristic of this disease entity, may play a part in the pathogenesis of cataract development.
Methods :
Two cohorts – one with G6PD (N=1843, avg. age 43.3) and the other comprised of total Montefiore patients (N=1,553,518, avg. age 41.7) were assembled from a retrospective epidemiological review of our electronic medical record data over 18 years. We compared the prevalence of cataracts in patients with G6PD to the Montefiore Medical Center population and used two different definitions for cataracts in order to conduct two separate analyses. Our first definition was when the patient was first diagnosed with cataract, however, because we could not determine the severity of cataract our second definition consisted of patients who underwent cataract removal surgery. We also stratified age by decade.
Results :
The overall prevalence of cataract diagnosis in patients with G6PD compared with the Montefiore patient population was 9.71% (N=179, average age 61.0) vs. 3.41% (N=53010, average age 65.8) (p<0.0001). The overall prevalence of cataract surgery in these two populations was 2.28% (N=42, average age 66.2) vs. 0.60% (N=9314, average age 70.2) (p<0.0001). Cataracts were seen at a younger age both in the ICD9 diagnosis group and the surgery group relative to the population with p-values of <0.0001 and 0.03. Age stratified analysis was significant for increased cataracts in the G6PD group in decades 30-39, 50-59, 60-69, and 80-89.
Conclusions :
We were able to show a higher prevalence of cataracts and rate of cataract surgery in the G6PD community. There was also a younger age of onset in both G6PD groups with cataract diagnoses and surgery. Further research is necessary to evaluate the mechanism by which oxidative damage in G6PD patients contributes to cataract formation.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.