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MI risk factors increased by IBD
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ORLANDO, Fla. — Patients with inflammatory bowel disease are at elevated risk for MI regardless of traditional heart disease risk factors, according to data presented at an American College of Cardiology web briefing.
According to the presentation, the RR for MI was significantly increased among younger patients and decreased with age.
“We now know that chronic inflammation has been recognized as having an important role in the development of heart disease,” Muhammad S. Panhwar, MD, resident in internal medicine at Case Western Reserve University and the University Hospitals in Cleveland Medical Center, said during his presentation. “Per the CDC’s estimate, there are about 3 million Americans that have inflammatory bowel disease and about 70,000 new cases are diagnosed every year.”
To more clearly understand the link between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and MI, Panhwar and colleagues reviewed data from a large database to aggregate electronic medical records from 26 national health care systems.
According to the researchers, they used systemized nomenclature of medicine-clinical terms to identify 17,538,190 patients aged 18 to 65 years with an IBD diagnosis who had active records.
Of the patients included in the study, 1.2% had IBD.
Patients who had IBD were more likely to have diabetes, (P < .001), hypertension (P < .001), dyslipidemia (P < .001) and to be smokers (P < .001) vs. patients without IBD.
Among patients with IBD, risk for MI was 3.9%, compared with 1.65% for patients in the control group (RR = 2.4; P < .001).
The researchers found that the RR for MI was highest among patients with IBD aged 20 to 25 years — approximately ninefold compared with patients in that age range without IBD — and decreased with age.
“Our study adds considerably to a growing set of literature highlighting the importance of chronic inflammation in IBD as having a role in the development of heart disease,” Panhwar said in a press release. “The results suggest clinicians should take seriously any symptoms suggestive of heart disease, such as chest pain, in patients with IBD, especially in younger patients.” – by Dave Quaile
Reference:
Panhwar MS, et al. Abstract 1262-441. Presented at: American College of Cardiology Scientific Session; March 10-12, 2018; Orlando, Fla.
Disclosure: Panhwar reports no relevant financial disclosures.