(Press-News.org) CHICAGO – Patients with a disease known as retinal vein occlusion (RVO) have a significantly higher incidence of stroke when compared with persons who do not have RVO, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
"Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is a retinal vascular disease in which a retinal vein is compressed by an adjacent retinal artery, resulting in blood flow turbulence, thrombus formation, and retinal ischemia," the authors write as background information in the article. "Although RVO is a significant cause of severe visual impairment in adults, it can occur at any age." Older age, diabetes, hypertension and vascular disease are among the risk factors for RVO.
Winifred Werther, Ph.D., then of Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, Calif., now of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Mass., and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study to compare the incidence rates of myocardial infarction (MI, heart attack) and cerebrovascular accident (CVA, stroke) in hospitalized patients with and without retinal vein occlusion. The researchers used a U.S. population-based health care claims database to identify patients with RVO and control patients, matched for age and sex.
Among 4,500 patients with RVO and 13,500 control patients, the researchers found that patients with RVO had an almost two-fold higher incidence of stroke than the age- and sex-matched controls.
"Event rates for CVA were 1.16 and 0.52 per 100 person-years for RVO and controls, respectively," the authors report.
In contrast, event rates for heart attack were similar in the patients with RVO and the control patients.
"Although men and patients younger than 65 years with RVO had a 1.6- and 1.9-fold higher risk of MI, respectively, compared with controls, there were no statistically significant differences in MI rates between patients with RVO and controls when they were stratified by sex or age," the authors write.
They conclude that "these data suggest that physicians and patients should be aware of the possible increased risk of CVA but not of MI in patients with RVO."###
(Arch Ophthalmol, 2011;129[3]:326-331. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org.)
Editor's Note: Dr. Werther is now with the Department of Global Patient Safety, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Mass. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, financial contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
Stroke incidence higher among patients with certain type of retinal vascular disease
2011-03-15
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Gender stereotypes about math develop as early as second grade
2011-03-15
Children express the stereotype that mathematics is for boys, not for girls, as early as second grade, according to a new study by University of Washington researchers. And the children applied the stereotype to themselves: boys identified themselves with math whereas girls did not.
The "math is for boys" stereotype has been used as part of the explanation for why so few women pursue science, mathematics and engineering careers. The cultural stereotype may nudge girls to think that "math is not for me," which can affect what activities they engage in and their career ...
Monash scientists uncover a new understanding of male puberty
2011-03-15
Scientists from Monash University have uncovered a new understanding of how male puberty begins.
The key to their findings lies with a protein known as SMAD3 and the rate at which it is produced.
Researchers, Associate Professor Kate Loveland and Dr Catherine Itman from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences have discovered through laboratory testing that half as much SMAD3 protein results in faster maturation than the norm, and an inability to create SMAD3 results in abnormal responses to testosterone.
"SMAD3 is a protein that translates signals from ...
Research may lead to new and improved vaccines
2011-03-15
Alum is an adjuvant (immune booster) used in many common vaccines, and Canadian researchers have now discovered how it works. The research by scientists from the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine is published in the March 13 online edition of Nature Medicine. The new findings will help the medical community produce more effective vaccines and may open the doors for creating new vaccines for diseases such as HIV or tuberculosis.
"Understanding alum properties will help other vaccines because we are one step deeper into the mechanistic insight of adjuvants, ...
Neuro signals study gives new insight into brain disorders
2011-03-15
Research into how the brain transmits messages to other parts of the body could improve understanding of disorders such as epilepsy, dementia, multiple sclerosis and stroke.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have identified a protein crucial for maintaining the health and function of the segment of nerve fibres that controls transmission of messages within the brain.
The study, published in the journal Neuron, could help direct research into neurodegenerative disorders, in which electrical impulses from the brain are disrupted. This can lead to inability to ...
Osteopathy 'of no benefit' to children with cerebral palsy
2011-03-15
Research commissioned by Cerebra, the charity that helps to improve the lives of children with brain conditions, and carried out by the Cerebra Research Unit (CRU) at the Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry, has found little evidence to suggest that cranial osteopathy is of benefit to children with cerebral palsy.
The research is published on-line in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Osteopathy has, over recent years, become a popular complementary treatment for children with cerebral palsy. Cerebra initially asked researchers at the CRU to investigate existing ...
Report into well-being and inclusion of former politically motivated prisoners
2011-03-15
The first major study of the wellbeing and inclusion of former politically motivated prisoners in Northern Ireland will be launched by Queen's University today (Monday 14 March).
Ageing and Social Exclusion among Former Politically Motivated Prisoners in Northern Ireland and the border region of Ireland investigated the well being and social and economic inclusion of loyalist and republican former prisoners (aged 50 and over) as older people in Northern Ireland. The report will be launched at Parliament Buildings at Stormont this afternoon.
The research was led by ...
Water for an integrative climate paradigm
2011-03-15
International climate negotiations are deadlocked between the affluent global North and "developing" South, between political Left and Right, and between believers and deniers. Now, authors writing in the latest issue of the International Journal of Water argue that a more integrative analysis of climate should help resolve these conflicts.
Land use changes and water management are highly relevant to climate change. To quote hydrologists Juraj Kohutiar and Michal Kravcik of the Slovak People and Water NGO: "Water evaporation is the most important agent of energy transformation ...
Arctic on the verge of record ozone loss
2011-03-15
Potsdam/Bremerhaven, March 14th, 2011. Unusually low temperatures in the Arctic ozone layer have recently initiated massive ozone depletion. The Arctic appears to be heading for a record loss of this trace gas that protects the Earth's surface against ultraviolet radiation from the sun. This result has been found by measurements carried out by an international network of over 30 ozone sounding stations spread all over the Arctic and Subarctic and coordinated by the Potsdam Research Unit of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association ...
'Fly tree of life' mapped, adds big branch of evolutionary knowledge
2011-03-15
Calling it the "new periodic table for flies," researchers at North Carolina State University and collaborators across the globe have mapped the evolutionary history of flies, providing a framework for further comparative studies on the insects that comprise more than 10 percent of all life on Earth.
The research, published today in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, plugs gaps in the 260-million-year history of the fly order Diptera, says Dr. Brian Wiegmann, NC State professor of entomology and primary investigator of the fly tree ...
Better batteries for electric cars
2011-03-15
Electric cars are the future – a view shared by government and the automotive industry alike. The German federal government aims to establish Germany as the lead market for electromobility. By 2020, a million passenger cars with an electric drive should be on the roads in Germany. The prospects of achieving that aim look good: As the ADAC, the German motoring organization, found out in a survey, 74 percent of those surveyed would buy an electric car if they did not have to compromise in terms of cost, comfort and safety. Consumers are not willing to compromise one iota ...