title: The Incidence and Prevalence of Thromboangiitis Obliterans in Taiwan: A Nationwide, Population-based Analysis of Data Collected from 2002 to 2011.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the incidence and prevalence of thromboangiitis obliterans in Taiwan in the period spanning from 2002 to 2011.
  
  
  METHODS
  We identified all incident and prevalent cases with a diagnosis of thromboangiitis obliterans (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision code 443.1) in the period spanning from 2002 to 2011 using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. We calculated the age- and sex-specific incidence and prevalence rates of thromboangiitis obliterans during the study period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 2002 to 2011, 158 patients were diagnosed with thromboangiitis obliterans; of these, 76% were men. Most (63%) of the patients were <50 years old when they were first diagnosed. After reaching 20 years of age, the incidence rate increased with age and peaked among those aged ≥60 years. The average incidence rate of thromboangiitis obliterans during the 2002-2011 period was 0.068 per 105 years. The incidence of thromboangiitis obliterans decreased with time, from 0.10 per 105 years in 2002 to 0.04 per 105 years in 2011. The prevalence increased from 0.26 × 10-5 in 2002 to 0.65 × 10-5 in 2011.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first epidemiologic study of thromboangiitis obliterans using claims data from a general population in Taiwan. This nationwide, population-based study found that the incidence and prevalence of thromboangiitis obliterans in Taiwan in the 2002-2011 period were lower than those in other countries before 2000. This study also revealed a trend of decreasing incidence with simultaneous increasing prevalence of thromboangiitis obliterans in Taiwan from 2002 to 2011.
authors.affiliation: Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology.
authors.forename: Jie-Fu
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology.|Department of Medical Research.|Department of Medical Education, Taichung, Taiwan.|National Yang-Ming University, School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yi-Ming
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology.|Department of Medical Research.|Department of Medical Education, Taichung, Taiwan.|National Yang-Ming University, School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.|National Chung-Hsing University, Institute of Biomedical Science and Rong Hsing Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.|Chung-Shan Medical University, School of Medicine, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Der-Yuan
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: National Yang-Ming University, School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ching-Heng
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology.|Department of Medical Research.|Department of Medical Education, Taichung, Taiwan.|National Yang-Ming University, School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.|National Chung-Hsing University, Institute of Biomedical Science and Rong Hsing Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.|Chung-Shan Medical University, School of Medicine, Taichung, Taiwan.|National Yang-Ming University, Institute of Public Health and Community Medicine Research Center, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsin-Hua
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D002388:Catastrophic Illness / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D013919:Thromboangiitis Obliterans / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult