Increased risk of non-multiple sclerosis demyelinating syndromes in patients with preexisting septicaemia: a nationwide retrospective cohort study

Background Growing evidence shows links between septicaemia and non-multiple sclerosis demyelinating syndromes (NMSDS); nevertheless, epidemiological data are still very limited. This study aimed to explore the relationship between septicaemia and NMSDS in a general population. Methods The study included 482 781 individuals diagnosed with septicaemia and 1 892 825 age/sex-matched non-septicaemia patients for the comparison. Data were drawn from a population-based nationwide National Health Insurance Research Database Taiwan, from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2011. The two cohorts of patients with and without septicaemia were followed up for the occurrence of NMSDS. The Cox-proportional hazard regression model was performed to estimate adjusted HR after multivariate adjustment. Results Individuals with septicaemia had a 4.17-fold (95% CI 3.21 to 5.4, p Conclusions Our results indicated that patients with septicaemia were likely to develop NMSDS. A possible contributing role of septicaemia in increasing the hazard of NMSDS is proposed, based on the outcome that individuals with higher severity of septicaemia carried elevated threat of encountering NMSDS.