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Retinal vascular complications associated with interferon‐ribavirin therapy for chronic hepatitis C: A population‐based study
Author(s) -
Lai ChienHsiung,
Yang YaoHsu,
Chen PauChung,
King YingChi,
Liu ChiaYen
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.023
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1099-1557
pISSN - 1053-8569
DOI - 10.1002/pds.4363
Subject(s) - medicine , ribavirin , incidence (geometry) , hazard ratio , hepatitis c , hepatitis c virus , retinopathy , gastroenterology , surgery , diabetes mellitus , confidence interval , immunology , endocrinology , virus , physics , optics
Purpose To investigate the incidence of retinal vascular complications and risk factors in patients with chronic hepatitis C receiving interferon‐ribavirin therapy in Taiwan. Methods By using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, we compared the incidence of retinal vascular complications between patients receiving and not receiving interferon‐ribavirin treatment. The exposure and nonexposure groups were randomly 1:1 frequency‐matched according to age, sex, income, urbanization level, hypertension, and diabetes. Incidence of each retinal vascular complication and hazard ratios were assessed in the follow‐up evaluation. Results Of the sample of 4736 patients, a total of 182 patients (3.84%) developed retinopathy during the follow‐up period, of which 110 patients (4.65%) received interferon‐ribavirin therapy and 72 patients (3.04%) did not receive interferon‐ribavirin therapy. After multivariate adjustments, the risk of retinopathy during the follow‐up period was 1.533 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.139‐2.064; P = .0048) times higher in patients receiving interferon‐ribavirin therapy than in those in the comparison cohort not receiving the therapy. Patients with hypertension compared with those without it (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.530; 95% CI, 1.069‐2.135; P = .0125) also had an increased risk of retinopathy. Conclusions Interferon‐ribavirin therapy was associated with a 53.3% increased risk of retinal vascular complications compared with not receiving the therapy. Regular ophthalmologic examination is essential for patients receiving interferon‐ribavirin, particularly those with hypertension.