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Gout and open-angle glaucoma risk in a veteran population.

Biggerstaff KS, White DL, Frankfort BJ, Richardson P, Orengo-Nania S, Garcia J, Chiao EY, Kramer JR. Gout and open-angle glaucoma risk in a veteran population. Graefe's Archive For Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology = Albrecht Von Graefes Archiv Fur Klinische Und Experimentelle Ophthalmologie. 2021 Nov 1; 259(11):3371-3379.

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Abstract:

PURPOSE: A history of gout, arthritis due to hyperuricemia, has been associated with decreased risk for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson''s disease. We performed a population-based case-control study in the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers nationwide to assess if gout or hyperuricemia is similarly associated with the ocular neurodegenerative condition glaucoma. METHODS: We used ICD-9 codes to identify a nationwide cohort of patients examined at VA healthcare eye clinics between 2000 and 2015 with a diagnosis of open-angle glaucoma (OAG) or of glaucoma suspect. We used incidence density matching to choose controls. We used multivariable logistic regression to examine associations between a history of gout and uric acid (UA) levels on relative risk of OAG or glaucoma suspect. RESULTS: There were 1,144,428 OAG or glaucoma suspect cases and 1,144,428 matched controls. Veterans with a history of gout had a small significant decreased risk of OAG compared to controls (OR = 0.985, 95% CI: 0.974-0.996). Treated gout was similarly associated with small decreased risk (OR = 0.963, 95% CI: 0.950-0.976). A small subset of patients (11.9% of cases and 13.2% of controls) had UA labs available; veterans with the highest median UA levels ( > 7.29 mg/dL) did not have statistically significant differences in relative OAG risk (OR = 1.014, 95% CI: 0.991-1.036). CONCLUSION: Prospective research in other cohorts is needed to confirm our findings in veterans suggesting a history of gout is associated with a small decreased relative risk of glaucoma.





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