E-cigarette use may significantly increase risk of uveitis, suggests study

A new study published in the journal of Ophthalmology showed that e-cigarette users have a significantly increased chance of getting uveitis when compared to non-users. Uveitis and other inflammatory conditions are linked to tobacco cigarettes and their contents. Over the past decade, the use of electronic cigarettes has increased, and numerous negative effects on eye health have been identified, including disturbances in tear film, choroidal blood flow, and ocular saccadic rhythms.

Studies have found that sputum of e-cigarette users contains higher amounts of proteins linked to oxidative stress. The individuals who vape nicotine may be at a higher risk of getting uveitis since these proteins have been connected to the start of the illness. Thus, Alan Hsu and colleagues looked into the possible correlation if this patient group did in fact have a higher chance of developing uveitis.

The patients over 18 years old with and without a recent history of e-cigarette use, were included from the TriNetX database. A total of 4,19,325 e-cigarette users and 4,19,325 comparators were included in their study. The racial distributions of the two groups were comparable, with patients of Asian, Black, or African, and white races among them. The incidence of newly identified uveitis was the main outcome.

With a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.53, the findings indicated that e-cigarette users had a higher chance of getting uveitis than non-users. According to age stratification in subgroup analyses, e-cigarette users who were between the ages of 18 and 39 (HR: 2.59), 40 and 64 (HR: 2.20), and 65 and older (HR: 3.15) had an increased risk of developing uveitis. Further, this risk remained constant throughout the course of the 4-year follow-up, suggesting that e-cigarette usage had both a short-term and long-term impact on the risk of uveitis. Despite not much e-cigarette usage, traditional cigarette smoking was also found to raise the risk of uveitis. Also, the individuals who had a history of using both e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes were at a greater risk of developing uveitis when compared to individuals who only used conventional cigarettes.

Overall, the results from this study merit more research, particularly because there has only been case reports linking e-cigarette usage to uveitis in the past. This study demonstrated that medical professionals should be mindful of the possible elevated risk of developing uveitis in individuals with a history of e-cigarette use.

Reference:

Hsu, A. Y., Wang, Y.-H., Hsia, N.-Y., Lai, C.-T., Kuo, H.-T., Wu, B.-Q., Lin, C.-J., Chiang, C.-C., Shao, Y.-C., Chen, H.-S., Tsai, Y.-Y., & Wei, J. C.-C. (2024). Risk of uveitis among E-Cigarette Users: a multi-institutional TriNetX study. In Ophthalmology. Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2024.11.008