Relationship between Uveitis, Different Types of Viral Hepatitis, and Liver Cirrhosis

PURPOSE This study investigates whether patients with viral hepatitis and cirrhosis are at risk of uveitis in the years following hepatitis. METHODS We used data from Taiwan National Health Insurance system. The cases were patients newly diagnosed with viral hepatitis from 2000 to 2011. The end point of interest was a diagnosis of uveitis. A chi-square test was used for the difference of demographic characteristics between viral hepatitis and comparison. The risk of uveitis in hepatitis was stratified using Cox proportional hazard regression. RESULTS We selected 17,389 patients with viral hepatitis and 34,778 matched comparison. The risk of uveitis in hepatitis cohort was 1.30-fold (95% confidence interval = 1.01-1.69). Patients with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus coinfection had the highest risk (hazard ratio = 2.88; 95% confidence interval = 1.07-7.78), and followed by only hepatitis C virus infection (hazard ratio = 1.75; 95% confidence interval = 1.10-2.79). Patients with cirrhosis had a higher risk in the multivariable model but did not attach statistic difference. CONCLUSION Patients with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus coinfection had the highest risk of uveitis. In patients with hepatitis C virus and/or hepatitis B virus infection, the symptoms of uveitis should be alerted. Although these epidemiologic studies yielded informative results, the underlying mechanisms and the host's genetic factors remain to be investigated.