Myocardial infarction and cerebrovascular accident in patients with retinal vein occlusion.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the incidence rates of myocardial infarction (MI) and cerebrovascular accident (CVA) in hospitalized patients with and without branch or central retinal vein occlusion (RVO).

METHODS

In this retrospective cohort study, a US population-based health care claims database was used to identify patients with RVO and control patients, matched for age and sex. Events of MI, CVA, and covariates were identified for patients with and without RVO. Incidences of MI or CVA events prompting hospitalization and adjusted rate ratios (RRs) were calculated; RRs were adjusted for covariates consistent with risk factors for outcomes.

RESULTS

Of 4500 patients with RVO and 13,500 controls, the event rates for MI were 0.87 per 100 person-years and 0.67 per 100 person-years, respectively. The adjusted RR for MI was 1.03 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75-1.42; P = .85 for RVO vs controls). Event rates for CVA were 1.16 and 0.52 per 100 person-years for RVO and controls, respectively. The adjusted RR for CVA was 1.72 (95% CI, 1.27-2.34; P = .001) for RVO vs controls.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides quantitative data on the incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular outcomes in patients with RVO in a large US population-based health care claims database. Event rates for MI were similar in patients with RVO and controls; however, the event rate for CVA in patients with RVO was almost 2-fold that observed in controls.