Reflux esophagitis increased the risk of bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis: a 3-year follow-up study.
OBJECTIVE
Reflux esophagitis (RE) is a common disease which has been recognized to be associated with several medical co-morbidities. However, the association between RE and bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is still unknown. The present study aimed to explore the association between these two diseases.


METHODS
We identified 8,962 female patients who had received a diagnosis of RE as the study cohort. We randomly selected 44,810 subjects to be included as the comparison cohort. Each patient in this study was individually tracked for a 3-year period to identify those who subsequently received a diagnosis of BPS/IC. Cox proportional hazards regressions were carried out to estimate the 3-year risk of BPS/IC following a diagnosis of RE.


RESULTS
The incidence of BPS/IC following a diagnosis of RE was 4.3% during the follow-up period for all subjects. The incidence rate of BPS/IC was 2.38 [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.21-2.57] per 100 person-years in patients with RE, and 1.24 (95% CI: 1.18-1.30) per 100 person-years in controls. Cox proportional analysis indicated that the hazard ratio (HR) of BPS/IC for patients with RE was 2.00 (95% CI = 1.82-2.20, P < 0.001) that of controls. The adjusted HR of BPS/IC for patients with RE was 1.40 (95% CI = 1.27-1.55, P < 0.001) after taking age group, urbanization level, and medical comorbidity into consideration.


CONCLUSIONS
We found that patients with RE were at a higher risk than with comparison patients for having been subsequently diagnosed with BPS/IC during longitudinal follow-up.
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Jiunn-Horng
JH
Kang
Joseph J
JJ
Keller
Yi-Kuang
YK
Chen
Herng-Ching
HC
Lin
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D015897:Comorbidity; D018856:Cystitis, Interstitial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004942:Esophagitis, Peptic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult