Risk for CVD nearly double in women with PCOS

Danish women with polycystic ovary syndrome are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease or hypertension over 11 years vs. women without PCOS, with obesity, diabetes, infertility and previous use of contraception all associated with the increased risk, according to study findings presented at the European Congress of Endocrinology annual meeting.

“Polycystic ovary syndrome is associated with obesity and low-grade inflammation, factors linked to cardiovascular disease,” Dorte Glintborg, MD, PhD, of the department of endocrinology at Odense University Hospital, Denmark, and colleagues wrote in an abstract. “The main study outcome was CVD events including hypertension defined according to nationwide in- and outpatient hospital contact diagnosis codes and/or inferred from filled medicine prescriptions.”

In a national, register-based study, Glintborg and colleagues analyzed data from women with PCOS free of CVD or hypertension at baseline from PCOS OUH (n = 1,165), a university database of premenopausal women with PCOS who underwent clinical exams, and PCOS Denmark (n = 18,112), a database of women with PCOS in the Danish National Patient Register. Researchers matched women with PCOS with three age-matched women without PCOS (controls; n = 52,769). The cohort was followed for a mean of 11.1 years, and the median age was 29 years.

Researchers found that women with PCOS were nearly twice as likely to develop incident CVD, including hypertension, compared with women without PCOS (HR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1.6-1.8). The total event rate for CVD was 19.2 per 1,000 patient-years in PCOS Denmark vs. 11.6 per 1,000 patient years among controls (P < .001). Median age at diagnosis of CVD was 35 years in PCOS Denmark vs. age 36 years among controls (P = .02).

Additionally, researchers found that obesity, diabetes, infertility and previous use of oral contraceptives were associated with the increased risk for CVD among PCOS Denmark women (P < .001). In the PCOS OUH group, age, BMI, blood pressure, lipid status and glycemic status were each associated with the development of CVD, according to researchers.

“The risk for developing CVD must be considered even in young women with PCOS,” the researchers wrote.

In a similar study reported by Endocrine Today in August 2017, Glintborg and colleagues evaluated the same cohort to determine the risk for type 2 diabetes and whether age, number of births and prescriptions for contraceptives modify the effects (mean follow-up, 11.1 years). In that study, researchers found that participants in PCOS Denmark were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes vs. controls (HR = 4; 95% CI, 3.7-4.3), with the risk persisting after excluding patients with gestational diabetes. – by Regina Schaffer

Reference:

Glintborg S, et al. Abstract GP127. Presented at: European Congress of Endocrinology; May 19-22, 2018; Barcelona, Spain.

Disclosure: Endocrine Today could not confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.