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Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is characterized by insulin resistance, high blood pressure/sugar, dyslipidemia, and obesity. Whether MetS and its components affect the development of Behçet's disease (BD) remains unclear. This study was performed to investigate the associations between metabolic syndrome and risk of BD using nationwide population data. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 10 505 818 Korean subjects who received health checkups in 2009–2012. Patients were classified into a MetS and its components group and were followed‐up until 2016 for new‐onset BD. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the independent or synergistic effects of MetS and its components on the risk of incident BD. Compared to subjects without MetS components, the hazard ratio (HR) for development of BD in patients with MetS was 0.874 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.819–0.933) and this association was more prominent when all components of MetS were present (HR = 0.675, 95% CI = 0.571–0.798). Subjects with low high density lipoprotein (HDL) has a significantly increased risk of the development of BD (HR = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.4–1.594) compared to controls. This study showed that the incidence of Behçet's disease was reduced in subjects with MetS. Moreover, the presence of MetS components, with the exception of HDL, was negatively related to the development of BD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease known to be associated with a variety of systemic comorbidities, such as metabolic syndrome and obesity. Obesity represents a major comorbidity and has been suggested to be related to psoriasis. This nationwide population‐based prospective cohort study was performed to investigate the impacts of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) on psoriasis. We used the health check‐up database and the study population consisted of subjects who had undergone health screening between January 2009 and December 2012. This study investigated patients newly diagnosed with psoriasis (International Classification of Disease, Tenth Revision, code L40) by dermatologists during the follow‐up period (5.32 years), based on claims data. The total population consisted of 22 633 536 subjects, among whom 399 461 had newly developed psoriasis. Subjects with BMI of more than 30 had a higher risk of psoriasis (hazards ratio [HR], 1.118; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.100–1.137) compared with the BMI 18.5–23 group. WC showed a dose‐dependent association with psoriatic risk. Subjects with WC over 105 cm showed the highest risk of psoriasis (HR, 1.305; 95% CI, 1.261–1.349) compared with subjects with WC lower than 80/75 after adjusting for confounding factors, including BMI. The risk of psoriasis was highest in males with normal BMI and abdominal obesity (HR, 1.175; 95% CI, 1.150–1.200). Our study indicates that WC is a specific factor affecting psoriatic risk and highlights the association between abdominal obesity and psoriasis, thus increasing awareness of the role of abdominal obesity in the pathogenesis and comorbidities of psoriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between psoriasis and cancer has not yet been established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of psoriasis with certain cancers using national statistics. All patients with psoriasis (n = 892 089; 51.7% male) and age‐ and sex‐matched control subjects (n = 4 460 445) at a 5:1 ratio were enrolled using data from the National Health Insurance Service between 2007 and 2014 in Korea. In psoriatic subjects, overall cancer risk was higher than for subjects without psoriasis after adjusting for income level, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and place of residence (hazard ratio, 1.065; 95% CI, 1.049–1.081). The risk of cancer increased in the following order: prostate, thyroid, liver, ovarian, lung, leukemia, skin, multiple myeloma, lymphoma and testicular. The severity and sex of psoriatic patients also had different cancer risks. In psoriatic patients, a slightly increased risk for specific malignant neoplasms was shown. Therefore, periodic screening for cancer risk is recommended in patients with psoriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, herpes zoster (HZ) has been identified as a risk factor for stroke, but there have been few studies on the relationship between HZ and other cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including myocardial infarction (MI) and heart failure (HF). The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk of HZ occurrence after CVD and the occurrence of CVD after HZ. This was a retrospective case–control study based on the National Health Insurance System claims database for 20 311 patients with HZ and 13 980 patients with CVD and 1:5 age‐ and sex‐matched control subjects for each from January 2006 to December 2013. We evaluated the reciprocal relationship between HZ and CVD including MI, ischemic stroke and HF. Severe HZ requiring hospitalization independently increased the risk of subsequent MI (hazard ratio [HR], 1.831; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.354–2.476)], ischemic stroke (HR, 1.523; 95% CI, 1.212–1.915) and HF (HR, 2.034; 95% CI, 1.615–2.562) during the study period. Likewise, patients with an episode of MI, ischemic stroke or HF were also at increased risk of HZ hospitalization (after MI: HR, 1.625; 95% CI, 1.144–2.308; after stroke: HR, 1.518; 95% CI, 1.177–1.957; and after HF: HR, 1.485, 95% CI 1.041–2.117). Our results suggest that there is a significant reciprocal relationship between severe HZ requiring hospitalization and CVD including MI, ischemic stroke and HF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]