Increased risk of coronary heart disease in male patients with central serous chorioretinopathy: results of a population-based cohort study

Aims To investigate whether patients with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) have increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods Population-based retrospective cohort and case control study. Longitudinal data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (2000-2009) were analysed. The study cohort comprised 835 patients with a diagnosis of CSCR and 4175 age and gender matched patients without CSCR. Kaplan-Meier plots and log-rank tests were used to compare differences in the hazard rates of CHD between the CSCR and non-CSCR cohorts. Stratified Cox proportional hazard models were applied to examine the association between CSCR and CHD, adjusting for potential confounding factors. Results The 5-year CHD cumulative incidence for patients with CSCR was nearly twofold that of the non-CSCR cohort (6.12% vs 3.29%, p=0.004) from the log-rank test. The adjusted CHD HR of CSCR versus non-CSCR was 1.61 (95% CI 1.12 to 2.30, p=0.009) from the Cox model. Specifically, the HR for male patients was 1.72 (95% CI 1.14 to 2.59, p=0.010) and for female patients it was 1.34 (95% CI 0.64 to 2.84, p=0.438). Conclusions Male patients with CSCR had a significantly higher CHD rate than those without CSCR, indicating that CSCR may be a potential risk factor for the development of CHD for men.