SMOKING, RURAL RESIDENCE AND DIABETES AS RISK FACTORS FOR PRESUMED OCULAR HISTOPLASMOSIS SYNDROME.

Purpose: To investigate the relationship of smoking, urbanicity, and diabetes to presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome (POHS) and associated choroidal neovascularization (CNV).

Methods: Medical records of 751 adult patients with POHS were reviewed, including 603 patients without CNV and 148 patients with CNV. Age-matched and gender-matched controls were randomly selected from the same practice for comparison.