Shingles, which causes multiple blisters and severe pain on the skin, is known to occur mainly in the elderly, chronically ill, or those with weakened immunity due to taking immunosuppressants. However, a domestic study found that the incidence rate is high in patients with liver cirrhosis. In particular, cirrhosis patients in their 20s and 40s have a relatively high risk of developing shingles compared to those in their 50s and 70s, so vaccination is required for younger patients with cirrhosis.
Professor Choi Jong-ki of the Department of Gastroenterology at Asan Medical Center compared and analyzed 504,986 adult patients aged 20 years or older who were newly diagnosed with liver cirrhosis between 2009 and 2015 using data from the National Health Insurance Corporation (2009-2019). On the 7th, it was confirmed that those with shingles had a 9% higher incidence of shingles and a 48% higher hospitalization rate due to shingles compared to the general population.
The research team analyzed the incidence of shingles in 504,986 patients for an average of 6.5 years (up to 10 years). As a result, among 500,000 patients, a total of 70,294 patients had shingles between 2009 and 2019. The incidence of shingles was 21.6 per 1000 person-years. This means that when 1,000 patients with liver cirrhosis were observed for one year, 21.6 of them developed shingles. Hospitalization due to shingles is 1.81 per 1000 person-years.
As a result of comparing patients with liver cirrhosis and the general population without liver cirrhosis by adjusting for age and gender, the risk of contracting shingles was about 9% higher in patients with liver cirrhosis than the general population, and the risk of hospitalization due to herpes zoster was about 48% higher. In particular, young patients with liver cirrhosis in their 20s had the highest risk of developing shingles.
By age group, the risk of developing shingles in patients with liver cirrhosis was found to be 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. In addition, the risk of developing herpes zoster was higher in women, those taking steroids or immunosuppressants, and patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis with complications.
Professor Choi Jong-gi said, “Since liver cirrhosis has a high risk of developing immune dysfunction accompanied by reduced liver function, it is judged that shingles easily develops.” I hope that it will serve as a scientific basis for recommending shingles vaccination to patients with liver cirrhosis.”
Meanwhile, the results of this study, which were conducted with research funds from the Korean Association for the Study of the Liver and the Korea Liver Foundation, were recently published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology (IF=12.045), an international academic journal published by the American Society of Clinical Gastroenterology.
