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No association found between HCV risk for myocardial infarction

Patients with chronic HCV were not found to be at an increased risk for myocardial infarction in a recent study.

In the retrospective cohort study in the United Kingdom, researchers evaluated 4,809 patients with HCV and no prior history of myocardial infarction (MI) along with 71,668 matched controls without HCV, with a median follow-up of 2.41 years for patients with HCV and 3.2 years for the controls. Incidences of MI and adjusted HRs were calculated for both groups in order to determine if patients with HCV were at an increased risk.

Across the entire cohort, 264 patients experienced acute MI, including 16 in the HCV group and 248 in the control group (P=.9) Investigators found no significant difference between the groups in the incidence rate of MI, with 1.02 occurrences in the group with HCV and 0.92 in the control group per 1,000 person-years (P=.67). No association was found between HCV and increased risk for MI after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors (adjusted HR=1.10; 95% CI, 0.67-1.83), and similar results occurred in sensitivity analyses which included acute MI and coronary interventions (adjusted HR=1.16; 95% CI, 0.77-1.74).

“HCV infection did not increase the risk of incident acute MI among a large sample of patients,” the researchers concluded. “The reduced lipid levels observed among HCV-infected persons might be sufficient to mitigate any pro-atherosclerotic effects of HCV-associated inflammation. The inflammation stimulated by HCV infection may also be different from that of other chronic inflammatory diseases.”