ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To identify relationships between idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) and socioeconomic determinants of health, such as low-income status and proximity to healthy food. METHODS: This retrospective case-control study of adult female neuro-ophthalmology patients from one institution identified 223 women with and 4,783 women without IIH. Street addresses were geocoded and merged with US census data to obtain census tract-level information on income and food access. Choropleth maps visualized IIH clusters within certain neighborhoods. Logistic regression compared the proportion of patients with IIH from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, low-income census tracts, and food deserts and swamps to controls without IIH. RESULTS: In our cohort, when adjusted for age, women with IIH were more likely to be Black (odds ratio [OR] 3.96, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.98-5.25), Hispanic (OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.14-4.36), and live in low-income tracts (OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.71-2.95) or food swamps (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.15-2.07). Patients with IIH were less likely to live in food deserts than controls (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.45-0.83). The association between Black race and IIH remained significant even after adjusting for other variables. CONCLUSION: IIH is more common among Black and Hispanic women than expected even when accounting for the demographics of a metropolitan city. Some of this relationship is driven by the association of obesity and IIH incidence with low income and proximity to unhealthy foods.
Subject(s)
Food Deserts , Geographic Mapping , Pseudotumor Cerebri/ethnology , Social Determinants of Health , Socioeconomic Factors , Adult , Black or African American/statistics & numerical data , Case-Control Studies , Female , Hispanic or Latino/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Pennsylvania/ethnology , Poverty/statistics & numerical data , Retrospective Studies , Young AdultSubject(s)
Coronavirus Infections/complications , Pneumonia, Viral/complications , Pseudotumor Cerebri/etiology , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/etiology , Adolescent , Betacoronavirus , COVID-19 , Coronavirus Infections/diagnosis , Female , Humans , Pandemics , Pneumonia, Viral/diagnosis , Pseudotumor Cerebri/cerebrospinal fluid , SARS-CoV-2 , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/diagnosisABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Sclerochoroidal calcification (SCC) is a rare and benign condition found mostly in middle-aged and elderly Caucasian men, characterized by multiple yellow-white lesions seen most commonly in the temporal regions of the fundus. While they may be concerning for benign tumors, primary neoplasias or metastases, SCCs most commonly present as asymptomatic findings during routine ophthalmologic testing and have a very good prognosis as they rarely cause visual deficits. OBJECTIVE: To report and describe the findings in a case of bilateral idiopathic sclerochoroidal calcifications. METHODS: A retrospective case report. RESULTS: Repeated ophthalmological exams, including fundoscopic examination, ultrasonography, optical coherence tomography and fluorescein angiography, were all consistent bilateral idiopathic sclerochoroidal calcifications. CONCLUSION: While most cases of idiopathic sclerochoroidal calcifications represent a benign ophthalmological condition, there are known associations with other systemic conditions, such as hyperthyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, Bartter's syndrome and Gitelman's syndrome. It is for this reason that these patients warrant a full systemic work-up in addition to careful ophthalmological monitoring.
