Evaluation of the Association Between Retinal Vein Occlusion and the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation Development: A 12-Year, Retrospective Nationwide Cohort Study

Abstract

We aimed to evaluate the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) development following retinal vein occlusion (RVO). We performed a nationwide propensity score-matched cohort study by retrospectively reviewing a database from the Korean National Health Insurance Service, comprising approximately 1 million random subjects. RVO and AF were diagnosed based on the Korean Classification of Disease codes. The RVO group was composed of patients with an initial diagnosis of RVO made between 2003 and 2007 (n = 1,801), excluding those who were diagnosed in 2002. The comparison group was composed of randomly selected patients (5 for each patient with RVO, n = 8,930) who were matched to the RVO group according to sociodemographic factors and the year of enrollment. Each sampled patient was tracked until 2013. The predictive value of RVO for AF was analyzed using Cox regression analysis with a hazard ratio (HR) and confidence interval (CI). AF developed in 6.5% of patients in the RVO group and 4.0% of those in the comparison group (p < 0.001). RVO was associated with a greater risk of AF development after adjusting for possible confounders (HR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.09–1.67). An association between RVO and subsequent AF development was found after adjusting for possible confounding factors.

Association of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss With Risk of Cardiocerebrovascular Disease

“…To date, several nationwide representative sample studies have been published using data f rom the KNHIS-NSC. [14][15][16][17] In the present longitudinal study, we examined the association between SSNHL and CCVD in 770 sociodemographically matched individuals extracted from a nationwide 11-year longitudinal cohort database of 1 025 340 South Korean patients. Interestingly, we found that patients with SSNHL had a significant increased risk of CCVD incidence, with an HR of 2.18 after adjustment for sociodemographic factors and the presence of comorbidities.…”

Risk of incident atrial fibrillation in patients presenting with retinal artery or vein occlusion: a nationwide cohort study

“…In contrast to results from the present study, findings from another study found an increased risk of AF in patients with RVO, which may be explained by difference between the study designs or ethnicity of the populations. [ 44 ] Because RVO share risk factors with ischemic stroke, RVO may be interpreted as a stroke surrogate marker. [ 16 ] As such, AF detection in RVO may still be relevant especially since AF commonly develops asymptomatically, and the silent development of incident AF in patients with prior retinal vascular occlusions would infer greater risk of stroke in the absence of anticoagulation.…”

Trends of Pars Plana Vitrectomy Rates in South Korea: A Nationwide Cohort Study

“…Our study has inevitable limitations as an analysis tool using health insurance claim data [ 10 ]. First, the cohort consisted of 2.2% of the eligible Korean population in 2002 by stratified random sampling; therefore, it had high representativeness in 2002.…”