Pre-eclampsia/Eclampsia as a Risk Factor of Noninfectious Uveitis Among Postdelivery Women

Abstract

We sought to analyze the incidence and risk of noninfectious uveitis (NIU) among postdelivery women with a history of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (PEE). Population-based retrospective matched cohort study. All participant data were retrieved from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005. Two thousand seventy-three postdelivery women ≥20 years of age were diagnosed with PEE between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 2012 and were included in the study. We traced the occurrence of NIU during 5 years of follow-up. The primary outcome measure was the occurrence of NIU with the use of anti-inflammatory drugs and adjudication by an ophthalmologist. NIU occurred in 14 of 2073 (0.7%) postdelivery women with PEE. The incidence rate of NIU was 1.5 and 0.5 per 1000 person-years among postdelivery women with and without PEE, respectively (incidence rate ratio 2.96 [95% confidence interval 1.48-5.90]; P= .002). Postdelivery women with PEE demonstrated a significant increase in the cumulative incidence of NIU compared with those without PEE (P= .001). The risk of the occurrence of NIU was significantly higher in the PEE group than in the non-PEE group (adjusted hazard ratio 2.96 [95% CI 1.48-5.92]; P= .002) after adjusting for age, income, urbanization, and comorbidities. This is the first study to substantiate an association between PEE and NIU. Our results suggest that PEE could be a potential risk factor for the occurrence of NIU among postdelivery women.