Eyeworld

72 | EYEWORLD | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 G UCOMA by Vanessa Caceres Contributing Writer 50 years or older and had three consecutive years of records connected to the Utah Pop- ulation Database, a research resource housed at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. Among the 2.2 million University of Utah Healthcare patients over a 20-year peri- od through 2015, researchers identified two cohorts: 2,943 patients for an XFS cohort and 20,589 patients for a COPD cohort. Codes from the International Classification of Dis- eases, Ninth Revision, were used to determine which patients had XFS and/or COPD. There also was a comparison group of age- and sex- matched controls in a 5:1 ratio who did not have a history of XFS (n=14,713), as well as a comparison group of patients with no history of COPD who were selected and matched 5:1 to COPD patients (n=102,939). There were no major differences in race, age at diagnosis, and years of follow-up be- tween women and men in the groups. Sixty- eight percent of the XFS patients and 44% of the COPD patients were female. At diagnosis, the mean age was 75 years and 67 years for XFS and COPD, respectively. Patients with XFS were more likely to be living at the end of the study period than their E xfoliation syndrome (XFS) is the most recognizable cause of open-angle glau- coma and is associated with systemic comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease, abdominal aortic aneurysms, hernias, cardiac arrhythmias, and other conditions. There is also a possible association between chronic obstructive pul- monary disease (COPD) and XFS that Samuel Taylor, BS, and coauthors analyzed in a study published in Ophthalmology Glaucoma. 1 The case-case and case-control compari- son found that patients with XFS may have an increased risk of a COPD diagnosis compared with those who do not have XFS, particularly among tobacco users. However, they did not find an increased risk of XFS in patients with COPD. Exfoliation syndrome is strongly associated with genetic variants of the lysyl oxidase-like gene (LOXL1), according to the authors. The presence of LOXL1 provides the link to both the ophthalmic and systemic effects. Study details The researchers used a dataset of Utah Health- care Medicare beneficiaries, all of whom were Exfoliation syndrome, COPD most common among tobacco users About the doctors Lauren Goodman, MD Pulmonary disease and critical care medicine The Ohio State University Wexler Medical Center Columbus, Ohio Natasha Nayak Kolomeyer, MD Department of Glaucoma Wills Eye Hospital Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Roger Maxfield, MD Professor of medicine Columbia University Medical Center New York, New York Reference 1. Taylor SC, et al. Association between chronic obstruction pulmonary disease and exfoliation syndrome. Ophthalmology Glaucoma. 2019;2:3–10. Relevant disclosures Goodman: None Kolomeyer: None Maxfield: None RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

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