Impact of Retinal Vein Occlusion on Stroke Incidence: A Meta‐Analysis

BackgroundConsiderable controversy exists on the association between retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and stroke risk. Therefore, we conducted a meta‐analysis to assess the relationship between RVO and stroke risk. Methods and ResultsPubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library databases were searched for cohort studies with data on RVO and stroke risk. Studies that reported adjusted relative risks (RRs) with 95% CIs of stroke associated with RVO were included. Stratified analyses were conducted according to key characteristics. A total of 5 articles including results from 6 prospective cohort studies with 431 cases of stroke and 37 471 participants were included in the meta‐analysis. Overall, after adjustment for established cardiovascular risk factors, participants with RVO at baseline were considerably more associated with a greater incidence of stroke risk (combined RR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.19–1.90), compared to participants without RVO. The results were more pronounced for stroke (RR: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.24–2.37) in ...