Myocardial infarction

IBD Significantly Affects Risk of Heart Attack

Individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), especially younger patients, have a significantly increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI) compared with the general population, according to the results a new study.

Findings from the study will be presented at the American College of Cardiology 2018 67th Annual Scientific Session and Expo, which will take place from March 10 to 12 in Orlando, Florida.
_______________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
The Flu Can Trigger a Heart Attack
Migraines Could Warn of Future CV Events
_______________________________________________________________________________

For their study, the researchers assessed data on 17,538,190 patients aged 18 to 65 years whose electronic medical records were available in a large commercial database. Patients with a diagnosis of IBD (ulcerative colitis or Crohn disease) were identified, and the risk of MI was compared between patients with and without IBD.

Overall, 211,870 (1.2%) patients had IBD. Ultimately, findings indicated that the risk of MI was 3.9% in IBD patients vs 1.65% in the general population, with the highest risk ratio (RR) for MI observed among younger patients aged 20 to 25 years (RR 20.5). This risk was found to decrease with age (RR 1.81 for IBD patients aged 60 to 64 years).

In addition, those with IBD were more likely to have diabetes (15.9% vs 8.9%), hypertension (33.6% vs 21.9%), and dyslipidemia (27.8% vs 18.3%), and were more likely to smoke (20.7% vs 12.0%) compared with the general population.

“In this large cohort, IBD is associated with significantly increased risk of MI compared to the general population,” the researchers concluded. “The relative risk of MI was highest in younger patients and decreased with age. These findings emphasize the need for aggressive risk factor reduction in IBD.”

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Panhwar MS, Mansoor E, Al-Kindi S, Cooper G, Ginwalla M. Risk of myocardial infarction in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Paper presented at: ACC.18 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo; March 11, 2018; Orlando, FL. http://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/ - !/4496/presentation/40517.