title: Retinal vein occlusion and risk of cerebrovascular disease and myocardial infarction: A meta-analysis of cohort studies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) has been hypothesized to be associated with cerebrovascular disease and myocardial infarction (MI), but the results are inconclusive. We thus systematically evaluated the effect of RVO on the development of cerebrovascular disease and MI by a meta-analysis of cohort studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched from inception to October 2015. Reference lists of retrieved papers were also reviewed. Cerebrovascular disease and MI were considered as the endpoints. Either fixed- or random-effects models were used to calculate the overall summary risk estimates. Subgroup and sensitivity analysis were performed to assess the potential sources of heterogeneity and the robustness of the pooled estimation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, a total of 9 cohort studies were included. Of these, 8 reported results on cerebrovascular disease and 5 reported on MI. The summary adjusted relative risks (RRs) for patients with RVO compared with the reference group were 1.50 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.32-1.69) for cerebrovascular disease and 1.28 (95% CI: 1.17-1.41) for MI. These associations were not significantly modified by geographic area, sample size, length of follow-up, and adjustment for potential confounding factors. Sensitivity analyses according to various inclusion criteria yielded similar results. No evidence of publication bias was observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This meta-analysis provides further evidence supporting that RVO is associated with increased risk of future cerebrovascular disease and MI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Preventive and Translational Medicine for Geriatric Diseases, Medical College of Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Industrial Park District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. Electronic address: zckzxysuda@163.com.
authors.forename: Chongke
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Shoujiang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: You
authors.affiliation: School for Radiological & Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X), and School of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
authors.forename: Guo-Chong
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Preventive and Translational Medicine for Geriatric Diseases, Medical College of Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Industrial Park District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Tan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Preventive and Translational Medicine for Geriatric Diseases, Medical College of Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Industrial Park District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. Electronic address: yhzhang@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yonghong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011379:Prognosis; D012170:Retinal Vein Occlusion / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Cerebrovascular disease; Cohort studies; Meta-analysis; Myocardial infarction; Retinal vein occlusion