Abstract
Purpose :
The association between retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and the risk of stroke or mortality had not been concluded. This study investigated the subsequent risk of ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, and all-cause mortality following a diagnosis of RVO.
Methods :
Using the entire population of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) from 2001 to 2013, 22919 subjects with RVO were enrolled in the RVO group, and 114595 subjects without RVO were enrolled in the comparison group. The comparison group consisted of randomly selected individuals who were propensity score (PS)-matched with the RVO group at a ratio of 1:5, based on age, gender, index year (year of enrollment), obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, hyperviscosity syndrome, Charlson comorbidity index, glaucoma, and the use of antithrombotic drugs. The pariticipants of both groups were followed until the end of 2013. A multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to estimate the adjusted hazard ratio (HRs) with 95% confidence interval (CI) of ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, and all-cause mortality.
Results :
The mean age of the cohort was 61.8±13.0 years. There were slightly more males than females (51.5% vs. 48.5%). In the multivariate Cox regression after adjustment for PS, the RVO group had a significantly higher risk of ischemic stroke (adjusted HR=1.36; 95% CI: 1.32 to 1.40) and hemorrhagic stroke (adjusted HR=1.34; 95% CI: 1.24 to 1.44). However, all-cause mortality was similar between the RVO and the comparison group (adjusted HR=0.99; 95% CI: 0.96 to 1.04).
Conclusions :
People with RVO are at significantly greater risk of developing ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke, but they did not have a significantly higher all-cause mortality.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.