Psoriasis increases retinal vein occlusion risk in diabetic patients: A nationwide population-based study

The objective of this research is to explore how psoriasis is linked to the occurrence of retinal vein occlusion (RVO) in diabetic population.This was a retrospective, nationwide, population-based cohort study that examined medical records from January 2009 to December 2012. The study focused on patients ≥ 20 years of age who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). We compared the incidence rate of RVO between a group of patients with psoriasis and a group of patients without psoriasis until December 2018 in all subjects.Of 2,745,689 type 2 DM patients, 23,725 patients were classified in the psoriasis group, and the rest of 2,547,121 individuals in the control group. A total of 497 RVO cases occurred in psoriasis group (3.14 per 1000 person-years) and 42,388 RVO cases in controls (2.44 per 1000 person-years). According to multivariable Cox proportional hazard models, individuals with psoriasis had a significantly greater risk of developing RVO compared to controls (hazard ratio: 1.216, 95% confidence interval: 1.11-1.33) after adjustments for covariates.This study demonstrated that psoriasis was an independent risk factor for developing RVO in DM patients. Therefore, physicians need to be vigilant for the occurrence of RVO in DM patients who also have psoriasis.