Rosacea may be associated with hypertension, dyslipidemia

A systematic review and meta-analysis showed correlations between rosacea and both hypertension and dyslipidemia but not other cardiovascular outcomes such as ischemic heart disease.

“The association between rosacea and cardiometabolic disease remains controversial,” Qi Chen, MD, of the department of dermatology at Xiangya Hospital at Central South University, China, and colleagues wrote.

The study included 50,442 patients with rosacea from 13 studies published before Oct. 16, 2019. The study populations were culled from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases.

Results indicated no association between rosacea and ischemic heart disease (RR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.59-1.34). In three studies that looked at stroke risk as a function of rosacea, results showed “no obvious difference” in this outcome, either (RR = 0.94; 95% CI, 0.70-1.27).

In five studies investigating diabetes risk, while rosacea yielded an increased risk for higher fasting blood glucose as assessed by standardized mean difference (SMD = 0.24; 95% CI, 0.03-0.46; P = .026), the trend for rosacea and diabetes incidence was nonsignificant (RR = 1.15; 95%

CI, 0.92-1.42).

There were four studies that included data on blood pressure for 722 patients with rosacea. Findings from these data sets indicated that rosacea was associated with elevation in both systolic (SMD = 0.40; 95% CI, 0.19-0.62; P = .000) and diastolic (SMD = 0.50; 95% CI, 0.19-0.81; P = .002) blood pressure.

Moreover, rosacea was also associated with a statistically significant elevation in hypertension (RR = 1.20; 95% CI, 1.08-1.34; P = .001).

For the 1,111 participants in multiple studies reporting findings on dyslipidemia, rosacea correlated with dyslipidemia (RR = 1.32; 95% CI, 1.10-1.58; P = .002) and carried elevations in total cholesterol (SMD = 0.42; 95% CI, 0.17-0.68; P = .001), LDL cholesterol (SMD = 0.37; 95% CI, 0.18-0.56; P < .001) and triglycerides (SMD = 0.28; 95% CI, 0.08-0.49; P = .006).

Regarding other lipid parameters, the researchers reported no significant association between rosacea and HDL cholesterol (SMD = –0.01; 95% CI, –0.14 to 0.11).

“Rosacea showed a correlation with hypertension and dyslipidemia but not with [ischemic heart disease], stroke or diabetes,” Chen and colleagues wrote. “We advocate screening for [cardiometabolic disease] indicators among patients with rosacea, which may be helpful for diagnosis and appropriate treatment at an early stage of disease.”