The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the incidence of glaucoma in patients diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) via the application of the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Patients with a diagnosis of SNHL were enrolled in the study group after an exclusion procedure and a propensity score matched group without SNHL was served as the control group with a 1:2 ratio. The main outcome was regarded as the emergence of glaucoma diagnostic codes. Cox proportional hazard regression was applied to analyze the incidence and adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of glaucoma in the multivariate model. A total of 15,686 patients diagnosed with SNHL were enrolled in the study group while another 31,372 non-SNHL individuals served as the control group. There were 444 glaucoma events in the study group and 647 glaucoma events in those non-SNHL individuals after the follow-up interval of 16 years. The study group demonstrated a significantly higher aHR compared to the control group after adjusting for multiple possible risk factors. In the subgroup analysis, both the normal tension glaucoma and angle closure glaucoma subgroups revealed a higher aHR in the study group. In conclusion, the patients with SNHL demonstrated a higher incidence of developing glaucoma. Moreover, the incidence was more prominent for patients diagnosed with normal tension glaucoma and angle closure glaucoma.

The aim of the current study is to evaluate the possible correlation between the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of HOX transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) and the clinical characteristics of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Four loci of HOTAIR SNPs, including rs920778 (T/C), rs12427129 (C/T), rs4759314 (A/G), and rs1899663 (G/T), were genotyped via the TaqMan allelic discrimination for 276 DR individuals and 452 non-DR patients. The distribution frequency of HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 CT [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 1.571, 95% CI: 1.025–2.408, p = 0.038], HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 CT+TT (AOR: 1.611, 95% CI: 1.061–2.446, p = 0.025), and HOTAIR SNP rs1899663 TT (AOR: 2.443, 95% CI: 1.066–5.595, p = 0.035) were significantly higher in the DR group. Moreover, the proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) subgroup revealed a significantly higher distribution of HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 CT+TT (AOR: 2.016, 95% CI: 1.096–3.710, p = 0.024) and HOTAIR SNP rs1899663 TT (AOR: 4.693, 95% CI: 1.765–12.479, p = 0.002), and the distribution frequencies of HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 CT (AOR: 3.722, 95% CI: 1.555–8.909, p = 0.003), HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 CT+TT (AOR: 4.070, 95% CI: 1.725–9.600, p = 0.001), and HOTAIR SNP rs1899663 TT (AOR: 11.131, 95% CI: 1.521–81.490, p = 0.018) were significantly higher in the female PDR subgroup. Regarding the clinical characters, the DR patients with HOTAIR SNP rs1899663 GT+TT revealed a significantly shorter duration of diabetes compared to the DR patients with HOTAIR SNP rs1899663 GG (10.54 ± 8.19 versus 12.79 ± 7.73, p = 0.024). In conclusion, HOTAIR SNP rs12427129 and rs1899663 are strongly correlated to the presence of DR, especially for a female with PDR.

The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the incidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in dyslipidemia-related diseases with or without the use of fibrate. Patients were defined as dyslipidemia-related diseases according to the diagnostic code and lab exam arrangement, then the population was divided into those with fibrate application and those without via 1:2 ratios of propensity-score matching. The primary outcome is the development of AMD after dyslipidemia-related diseases by the Cox proportional hazard regression. Besides, the relationship between the medical compliance of fibrate, presented as medical possession ratio (MPR), and the AMD development was also analyzed. A total of 22,917 patients and 45,834 individuals were enrolled in the study and control groups. There were 572 and 1181 events of any AMD development in the study and control groups which showed identical risk of AMD (aHR: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.85–1.04). However, a reduced risk of any AMD was found in those patients reached a baseline MPR more than 20% (aHR: 0.729, 95% CI: 0.599–0.887, p = 0.0016) and overall MPR more than 5% three years after the diagnosis of dyslipidemia-related diseases (aHR: 0.712, 95% CI: 0.557–0.909, p = 0.0065). Besides, a lower risk of dry-AMD was also found in those patients with the above conditions (aHR: 0.736, 95% CI: 0.599–0.906, p = 0.0038 and aHR: 0.721, 95% CI: 0.557–0.934, p = 0.0133, respectively). In conclusion, the use of fibrate with fair initial medical compliance will decrease the incidence of AMD in patients with dyslipidemia-related diseases, especially for the development of dry-AMD.

This patient presented with excessive pain, lid swelling, erythema, heat and limitations of extraocular movement (OD) nine days after a scleral buckle (SB) and pneumopexy surgery. Complicated buckle infection with endophthalmitis was impressed. Bacterial culture yielded methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. A choroidal abscess was identified 1 week after the episode. Complete visual recovery from hand motion to 20/30 (OD) was achieved with buckle removal, subconjunctival and intravitreal antibiotics. Endophthalmitis and choroidal abscess formation after SB surgery is extremely rare. Host factors including ulcerative colitis may play a role in causing the severe buckle infection of this patient.

We try to evaluate glaucoma management numbers in patients with both glaucoma and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan. A retrospective cohort study was conducted and patients with glaucoma were enrolled and divided into the OSA and non-OSA populations. A total of 11,778 participants were selected in both the OSA and non-OSA groups. The primary outcomes were the number of anti-glaucomatous medications each year and the total number of glaucoma laser and glaucoma surgeries. The Cox proportional hazard regression was utilized to produce the adjusted hazard ratios (AHR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) between the two groups. After a study period of 18 years, 286 and 352 events of laser and surgeries for glaucoma were found in the OSA and non-OSA groups, respectively. After considering the effect of potential confounders, no significant difference concerning the numbers of laser trabeculoplasty, trabeculectomy and tube shunt surgery, cyclodestructive procedure and eyeball removal were found between the two groups (all 95% CIs included one). In addition, the multiple anti-glaucomatous medication usages were similar between the two groups (all p > 0.05) In the subgroup analyses, glaucoma patients older than 60 years and with OSA received significantly lesser trabeculectomy and tube shunt surgery compared to glaucoma patients older than 60 years without OSA (AHR: 0.774, 95% CI: 0.611–0.981) while other analyses revealed insignificant results (all 95% CIs included one). In conclusion, the presence of OSA does not increase the need for glaucoma management.