title: Increased risk for herpetic eye disease in patients with allergic conjunctivitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the risk of ocular surface herpetic eye disease (osHED) in allergic eye disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  We calculated the risk for osHED in 11,205 patients on antiallergic ocular topical agents compared with 453,069 controls based on filled prescriptions for topical acyclovir between 2001 and 2003.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significantly more allergic patients, of all age groups, received treatment for osHED (p < 0.01). The age and gender adjusted relative risk for allergic patients to suffer an osHED event was 2.31 (95% CI: 1.84-2.90), raising to 3.55 (95% CI: 2.0-6.4) in patients that filled > or = 4 antiallergic prescriptions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients treated for allergic eye disease have an increased risk of osHED.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Barzilai Medical Center, Ashkelon, Israel. Igor@Dr-Kaiserman.com
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kaiserman
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kaiserman
authors.forename: Asher
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elhayany
authors.forename: Shlomo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vinker
mesh_terms: D000212:Acyclovir / Q000008:administration & dosage; D000328:Adult; D018926:Anti-Allergic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003233:Conjunctivitis, Allergic / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy; D016208:Databases, Factual; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016849:Keratitis, Herpetic / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012306:Risk
chemical_list: D018926:Anti-Allergic Agents; D000998:Antiviral Agents; D000212:Acyclovir