title: Increased risk of anterior uveitis following herpes zoster: a nationwide population-based study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship between herpes zoster (HZ) and the subsequent risk of anterior uveitis during the year following an HZ diagnosis, using a nationwide population-based data set.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study used the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The study cohort consisted of 314,405 patients who received a diagnosis of HZ. The comparison cohort comprised 943,215 randomly selected patients. We tracked each patient for a 1-year period from their index ambulatory care visit to identify those who subsequently received a diagnosis of anterior uveitis. Stratified Cox proportional hazard regressions were performed to compute the adjusted 1-year uveitis-free survival rate, after adjusting for patient's age, sex, and geographic region and the presence of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, mumps, systemic lupus erythematosus, tuberculosis, ankylosing spondylitis, and human immunodeficiency syndrome/AIDS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the 1-year follow-up period, 2515 (0.2%) of 1,257,620 sampled patients were diagnosed with anterior uveitis: 908 from the study cohort (0.3% of the patients with HZ) and 1607 from the comparison cohort (0.2% of patients without HZ). After adjusting for potential confounders, the hazard ratio of anterior uveitis during the 1-year follow-up period was 1.67 for patients with HZ (P < .001) compared with the comparison cohort. In addition, the hazard ratio of anterior uveitis for patients with HZ ophthalmicus was 13.06 (P < .001) when compared with patients without HZ.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The risk of anterior uveitis increased in the year following a diagnosis of HZ. We suggest that patient eye condition be evaluated following diagnosis with HZ.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tsung-Jen
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chao-Chien
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Herng-Ching
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006563:Herpes Zoster Ophthalmicus / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D044382:Population Groups; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D014606:Uveitis, Anterior / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult