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Objective: This population-based cohort study investigated the risk of developing peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) in patients with Bell’s palsy. Methods: We used longitudinal claims data of health insurance of Taiwan to identify 5,152 patients with Bell’s palsy newly diagnosed in 2000–2010 and a control cohort of 20,608 patients without Bell’s palsy matched by propensity score. Incidence and hazard ratio (HR) of PAOD were assessed by the end of 2013. Results: The incidence of PAOD was approximately 1.5 times greater in the Bell’s palsy group than in the non-Bell’s palsy controls (7.75 vs. 4.99 per 1000 person-years). The Cox proportional hazards regression analysis measured adjusted HR was 1.54 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.35–1.76) for the Bell’s palsy group compared to the non-Bell’s palsy group, after adjusting for sex, age, occupation, income and comorbidities. Men were at higher risk of PAOD than women in the Bell’s palsy group, but not in the controls. The incidence of PAOD increased with age in both groups, but the Bell’s palsy group to control group HR of PAOD decreased as age increased. The systemic steroid treatment reduced 13% of PAOD hazard for Bell’s palsy patients, compared to those without the treatment, but not significant. Conclusions: Bell’s palsy appears to be associated with an increased risk of developing PAOD. Further pathophysiologic, histopathology and immunologic research is required to explore the underlying biologic mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The risk of herpes zoster (HZ) between patients with psoriasis receiving and not receiving systemic therapy has received increasing attention. This study investigated the association of psoriasis with the risk of HZ. Methods: We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study by using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The psoriasis cohort consisted of 4077 patients with newly diagnosed psoriasis between 2000 and 2006. Each patient with psoriasis was frequency-matched with four people without psoriasis, by sex, age and index year. (nonpsoriasis cohort; 16308 subjects). Patients who received systemic therapy were classified as having severe psoriasis, whereas those who did not receive systemic therapy were classified as having mild psoriasis. The Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was conducted to estimate the association between psoriasis and HZ risk. Results: The overall incidence density rate of HZ in the psoriasis cohort than in the nonpsoriasis cohort (4.50 vs. 3.44 per 1,000 person-years), with a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model measured adjusted HR of 1.29 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.07–1.56]. In additional, compared with the nonpsoriasis cohort, the risk of HZ was higher in the severe psoriasis cohort than in the nonpsoriasis cohort (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15–2.27). The comparison between psoriasis and nonpsoriasis cohorts revealed a greatest magnitude risk of HZ in women (adjusted HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.04–1.79), study participants in the age group of 20–39 years (adjusted HR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.17–2.66), and study participants without any comorbidities (adjusted HR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.02–1.84). Conclusions: Our results suggest that psoriasis is associated with an increased risk of HZ, which involves differences in sex and age. Although systemic therapy may have a major role in the risk of HZ, the intrinsic factors of psoriasis cannot be excluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To examine the long-term risk of essential tremor (ET) in migraine. Methods: Using population-based administrative data from a subset of the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan, we identified 22,696 newly diagnosed migraineurs (mean age 44.5 years) and a matched migraine-free cohort of 90,784 individuals in the period 2000–2008. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was conducted for assessing the ET risk for the migraine cohort compared to the migraine-free cohort. Results: After adjusting for covariates, the migraine cohort had a 1.83-fold increased risk (95% CI 1.50–2.23) of subsequent ET in comparison to the migraine-free cohort (8.97 vs. 4.81 per 10,000 person-years). In the subgroup analysis, patients with migraine were associated with higher risks of ET, regardless of gender, age or the existence of comorbidities. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated an association between migraine and ET, suggesting a possible shared pathophysiology underpinning both disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The changes of the risk of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in patients with end-stage renal disease after parathyroidectomy are scant. Methods: We used a nationwide health insurance claims database to select all dialysis-dependent patients with end-stage renal disease aged 18 years and older for the study population in 2000 to 2006. Of the patients with end-stage renal disease, we selected 947 patients who had undergone parathyroidectomy as the parathyroidectomy group and frequency matched 3746 patients with end-stage renal disease by sex, age, years since the disease diagnosis, and the year of index date as the non-parathyroidectomy group. We used a multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis with the use of a robust sandwich covariance matrix estimate, accounting for the intra-cluster dependence of hospitals or clinics, to measure the risk of peripheral arterial disease for the parathyroidectomy group compared with the non-parathyroidectomy group after adjusting for sex, age, premium-based income, urbanization, and comorbidity. Results: The mean post-op follow-up periods were 5.08 and 4.52 years for the parathyroidectomy and non-parathyroidectomy groups, respectively; the incidence density rate of PAD in the PTX group was 12.26 per 1000 person-years, significantly lower than the data in the non-PTX group (24.09 per 1000 person-years, adjusted HR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.46–0.94). Conclusion: Parathyroidectomy is associated with reduced risk of peripheral arterial disease in patients with end-stage renal disease complicated with severe secondary hyperparathyroidism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The association between primary headaches, including tension-type headache (TTH) as one of the most common primary headache disorders, and dementia remains controversial. In this nationwide, population-based, retrospective, cohort study, we explored the potential association between TTH and dementia and examined sex, age, and comorbidities as risk factors for dementia. Methods: Using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) claims data, the sample included 13908 subjects aged ≥20 years with newly-diagnosed TTH in 2000–2006. The non-TTH group included 55632 randomly selected sex- and age-matched TTH-free individuals. All subjects were followed until dementia diagnosis, death, or the end of 2011. Patients with dementia, including vascular and non-vascular (including Alzheimer’s) subtypes, were identified using International Classification of Diseases Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess the risk of dementia and dementia-associated risk factors, such as migraine and other medical comorbidities. Results: During the average follow-up of 8.14 years, the incidence density rates of dementia were 5.30 and 3.68/1,000 person-years in the TTH and non-TTH groups, respectively. Compared with the non-TTH group, the risks of dementia were 1.25 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11–1.42) and 1.13 (95% CI, 1.01–1.27) times higher in the women and >65-year-old TTH group, respectively. TTH patients with comorbidities had a higher risk of dementia. TTH patients had a greater risk of non-vascular dementia (hazard ratio, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.09–1.34) than the non-TTH group. Conclusion: TTH patients have a future risk of dementia, indicating a potentially linked disease pathophysiology that warrants further study. The association between TTH and dementia is greater in women, older adults, and with comorbidities. Clinicians should be aware of potential dementia comorbidity in TTH patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Few studies have evaluated the association between Sjogren's syndrome (SS) and respiratory failure (RF). Thus, we conducted a retrospective national cohort study to investigate whether Sjogren's syndrome (SS) increases the risk of respiratory failure (RF). Methods: The cohort consisted of 4954 newly diagnosed patients with SS but without a previous diagnosis of RF, and 19816 patients as the comparison cohort from the catastrophic illnesses registry, obtained from the 2000–2005 period. All of the study participants were followed from the index date to December 31, 2011. We analyzed the association between the risk of RF and SS by using a Cox proportional hazards regression model, controlling for sex, age, and comorbidities. Results: The overall incidence rate of RF showed a 3.21-fold increase in the SS cohort compared with the comparison cohort. The adjusted HR of RF was 3.04 for the SS cohort compared with the comparison cohort, after we adjusted for sex, age, and comorbidities. The HRs of RF for patients with primary SS and secondary SS compared with the comparison cohort were 2.99 and 3.93, respectively (P for trend <.001). The HRs of RF increased as the severity of SS increased, from 2.34 for those with no inpatient care experience to 5.15 for those with inpatient care experience (P for trend <.001). Conclusion: This study indicates that clinical physicians should not only consider secondary SS but also primary SS as a critical factor that increases the risk of RF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]