Heart Attack Risk Up in Patients With IBD

Patients with IBD experience an increased risk for myocardial infarction (MI), despite having fewer risk
factors for MI—such as hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia—according to findings published in the
International Journal of Cardiology. Davide Giuseppe Ribaldone, MD, and colleagues examined published
literature on the risk for MI in patients with IBD to determine possible risk factors. They gathered an
overall study population of 515,455 controls and 77,140 persons with IBD (CD, 34.8%; UC, 65.2%). Individuals
with CD and UC had lower rates of hypertension versus controls (14.5% and 14.6%, respectively, vs 25%),
diabetes (2.9% and 5.2%, respectively, vs 9.2%) and dyslipidemia (3.3% and 6.5%, respectively, vs 16.1%).
Smoking did not significantly differ across all groups and mean ages were similar. The pooled results of
multivariate adjustment demonstrated that, at 5 years of follow-up, patients with both CD and UC had an
increased risk for MI (HRs, 1.36 and 1.24, respectively), death (HRs, 1.55 and 1.29, respectively), and
other cardiovascular disease such as stroke (HRs, 1.22 and 1.09, respectively).