Youl Lee Lym

Diabetes mellitus and early age-related macular degeneration.

OBJECTIVE To examine the association of diabetes mellitus and early age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in Korean adults 50 years and older. METHODS This study included 3008 participants aged 50 to 87 years. Early AMD was assessed from retinal photographs based on a modified Wisconsin AMD grading system. Diabetes mellitus was defined as a fasting glucose level of 126 mg/dL or greater or the use of antidiabetic medications. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between diabetes mellitus and early AMD. RESULTS There were 88 subjects with early AMD and 315 subjects with diabetes mellitus. After adjusting for age, sex, current smoking, obesity, and hypertension, significant association was found between diabetes mellitus and early AMD. Subjects with diabetes mellitus were more likely to have early AMD (odds ratio, 1.87; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-3.28) than were those without diabetes mellitus. CONCLUSION There is a relationship between diabetes mellitus and early AMD in Korean adults 50 years and older. The underlying biological processes remain to be determined.

Hormone Therapy and Risk of Lung Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND The association between hormone therapy (HT) use and lung cancer risk is inconsistent in epidemiological studies. This meta-analysis was conducted to examine the association between HT and lung cancer risk. METHODS We searched MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library in April 2008. All articles searched were independently reviewed and selected by two evaluators according to predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. RESULTS We included a total of 11 studies (8 case-control studies and 3 prospective cohort studies), involving a total of 220,599 participants. When all studies were pooled, the odds ratio (OR) of HT use for lung cancer risk was 0.87 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.74-1.02). In subgroup meta-analyses, there was no association among cohort studies (relative risk (RR) 1.01; 95% CI 0.74-1.38), while there was a significant association between HT use and lung cancer risk among case-control studies (OR 0.81; 95% CI 0.68-0.97) based on a random-effects model. No significant association between HT use and lung cancer risk was observed in most of the subgroup meta-analyses by methodological quality of study, type of HT use, duration of HT use, and histology of lung cancer, while significant protective effects were observed among former and never smokers except for current smokers. However, cumulative meta-analyses based on year of publication showed a distinct trend toward a protective effect of HT use on lung cancer risk in the recent studies. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the findings of this meta-analysis do not support the hypothesis that there is a link between HT use and lung cancer risk. Our findings should be evaluated in further prospective cohort studies.