[Cylchlythyr Iechyd a Lles]A Korean research team has found that people with cirrhosis of the liver have a high risk of developing shingles. The incidence rate increased by 9% and the hospitalization rate increased by 48%. In particular, the risk of developing herpes zoster was high in patients with liver cirrhosis at a young age, with the highest being 20 to 41%.
As a result of a comparative analysis of 500,000 adult patients with cirrhosis of the liver, a research team led by Professor Choi Jong-ki from the Department of Gastroenterology at Seoul Asan Medical Center found that patients with cirrhosis of the liver had a 9% higher cases of shingles and a 48% higher rate of hospital admissions due to shingles compared to the general population.
In particular, the risk of developing shingles in patients with cirrhosis of the liver in their 20s and 40s is relatively high compared to those in their 50s and 70s, so it is indicated that younger patients with cirrhosis of the liver should be be careful of shingles by vaccination. .
Until now, most studies on the link between cirrhosis and shingles were foreign data or small-scale studies, making it difficult to apply them to domestic patients.
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▲ Professor Choi Jong-gi from the Gastroenterology Department of Seoul Asan Medical Center sees a cirrhosis patient in his 30s. |
However, this study by Professor Choi Jong-gi’s team is significant as it uses large data from the National Health Insurance Service to test the 10-year incidence of shingles in liver cirrhosis patients and the general population in Korea.
Professor Choi’s team used data from the National Health Insurance Corporation (2009 to 2019) to determine the incidence of shingles in 504,986 adult patients aged 20 years or older who were newly diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver between 2009 and 2015 for an average of 6.5 years (up to 10 years) were analyzed.
First, among 500,000 patients with cirrhosis of the liver, a total of 70,294 patients had shingles between 2009 and 2019. The incidence of shingles was 21.6 per 1,000 person-years. This means that when 1,000 patients with cirrhosis were seen for a year, 21.6 of them developed shingles. Hospitalization due to shingles is 1.81 per 1,000 person-years.
As a result of comparing patients with liver cirrhosis and the general population without liver cirrhosis by adjusting for age and sex, the risk of contracting shingles was approximately 9% higher in patients with liver cirrhosis than the general population, and the risk of hospitalization due to herpes zoster was approximately 48% higher.
In particular, young patients with cirrhosis of the liver in their 20s had the highest risk of developing shingles.
When analyzed by age group, the risk of developing shingles in patients with cirrhosis of the liver was 41% in their 20s, 16% in their 30s, 17% in their 40s, 8% in their 50s, 8% in their 60s, and 6% in their 70s, respectively, compared to the general population.
In addition, the risk of developing herpes zoster was higher in women, those taking steroids or immunosuppressants, and patients with decompensated cirrhosis of the liver with complications.
Professor Choi Jong-gi said, “Since cirrhosis has a high risk of developing immune dysfunction along with reduced liver function, shingles is considered to develop easily.” I hope it will be a scientific basis for recommending the shingles vaccine for patients with liver disease. cirrhosis.”
The results of the research, carried out with research funds from the Korean Society for the Study of the Liver and the Korea Liver Foundation, were recently published in the ‘Journal of the American Society of Gastroenterology’, an international academic journal published by the American Society. Clinical Gastroenterology.
On the other hand, shingles occurs when the varicella virus, which was infected as a child, lies dormant in nerve cells and spreads to the nerves when the body’s immune system weakens. Mostly blisters and extreme pain appear, and even if the blisters and rash disappear, there is a high possibility of secondary infection or chronic neuralgia, so prevention by vaccination is important.
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