Among young adults with RVO, common vascular comorbidities were documented more frequently than hypercoagulable or vasculitic conditions.
The study identified 5,257 adults aged 18-50 years with retinal vein occlusion (branch and central subtypes) in the TriNetX US Collaborative Network.
Most young adults with RVO had at least one documented risk factor before diagnosis.
Hypertension, obesity, and type 2 diabetes mellitus were the most commonly documented pre-diagnosis risk factors.
Primary thrombophilia and hematologic malignancy were documented less frequently than common vascular comorbidities before RVO diagnosis.
About one in eight patients received at least one newly coded risk-factor diagnosis within 90 days after RVO diagnosis.
Among patients with no previously documented risk factors, a small proportion had a risk factor newly documented in the 90 days after RVO diagnosis.
Common vascular comorbidities were documented more frequently than hypercoagulable or vasculitic conditions in young adults with RVO.
Retinal vein occlusion (RVO), a blockage of veins in the retina that can cause vision loss, is usually seen in older adults. This study used a large US electronic health records database to look at 5,257 people aged 18 to 50 with RVO and see which health conditions had been recorded for them. About two-thirds (66.4%) had at least one documented risk factor before their RVO diagnosis. The most common were high blood pressure (25%), obesity (17.4%), and type 2 diabetes (13.3%). Rarer conditions, such as inherited clotting disorders (2.2%) and blood cancers (1.6%), were recorded less often. In the 90 days after diagnosis, 12.3% of patients had a new risk-factor diagnosis recorded, mostly high blood pressure, obesity, or high cholesterol. Among those with no prior risk factor, 3.7% had one newly recorded. This research suggests that, even in younger adults, RVO is more often accompanied by common vascular conditions than by clotting or inflammatory-vessel disorders. The study is retrospective and relies on diagnosis codes, so it describes what was documented rather than proving causes, and it cannot show how many conditions went undiagnosed.
Zhang C, Allaf A, Ersan S, Sosa-Lockward J, Williams B, Berrocal A. (2026). Prevalence of systemic and ocular comorbidities in patients aged 18-50 years with retinal vein occlusion.. International ophthalmology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-026-04312-3