Increased Risk of New-Onset Parkinson's Disease Following a Diagnosis of Retinal Vascular Occlusion: A 14-year Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Although the role of the vascular component in the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease is widely accepted and retinal vascular abnormalities are commonly observed in Parkinson's disease patients, evidence connecting retinal vascular disorders with the risk of developing Parkinson's disease is limited. We aimed to investigate the association between retinal vascular occlusion and the risk of developing Parkinson's disease in people over 60 years using a nationwide cohort.

METHODS: From the 14-year South Korean National Health Insurance Service-Senior cohort, 11,210 incident retinal vascular occlusion patients and 11,210 propensity score, risk-matched controls were included. The incidence of Parkinson's disease was estimated with a Poisson regression. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to investigate the associations between retinal vascular occlusion and risk of Parkinson's disease.

RESULTS: The incidence of Parkinson's disease was 664.4 cases per 100,000 person-years (95% confidence interval [CI], 599.7-736.0) in the retinal vascular occlusion cohort. Individuals with retinal vascular occlusion had an increased incidence of Parkinson's disease (hazard ratio [HR], 1.28; 95% CI, 1.10-1.49). Increased PD risk was predominantly observed in retinal artery occlusion patients (HR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.11-2.12), male patients (HR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.29-2.17), and 5 years after diagnosis (HR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.10-1.93).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that a common pathophysiological pathway, such as vasculature changes, may exist between retinal vascular occlusion and Parkinson's disease. Retinal vascular occlusion may be one of the risk factors associated with future development of Parkinson's disease. The nature of this association warrants further investigation.