The risk of cardiovascular disease in systemic sclerosis: a population-based cohort study
Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, 08/21/2012
Clinical Article
Man A et al. – The findings provide the first general population–based evidence that systemic sclerosis is associated with an increased risk of developing myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.
Methods- The authors conducted a cohort study using a UK primary care database containing records from 1986 to 2011.
- SSc diagnoses, outcomes and cardiovascular risk factors were identified from electronic medical records.
- The authors conducted two cohort analyses: MI and stroke, and PVD, excluding individuals with prevalent disease at baseline for each analysis.
- They estimated HRs comparing SSc with age–, sex– and entry time–matched comparison cohorts, adjusting for potential cardiovascular risk factors.
- Among 865 individuals with SSc (85.8% women, mean age 58.7 years), the incidence rates (IRs) of MI and stroke were 4.4 and 4.8 per 1000 person–years (PY), versus 2.5 and 2.5 per 1000 PY in the comparison cohort.
- The corresponding adjusted HRs were 1.80 (95% CI 1.07 to 3.05) for MI and 2.61 (95% CI 1.54 to 4.44) for stroke.
- Among 858 individuals with SSc (85.3% female, mean age 58.9 years), the IR of PVD was 7.6 per 1000 PY versus 1.9 per 1000 PY in the comparison cohort, with an adjusted HR of 4.35 (95% CI 2.74 to 6.93).
