IBD patients are at higher risk of heart attack and mortality

South Korea: Crohn’s disease (CD) patients are at a higher risk for heart attack or myocardial infarction (MI) and this risk is starker in female patients and those aged <40 years.

The researchers used claim codes for identification of the patients diagnosed with IBD between 2006 and 2009 (10,708 with CD; 26,769 with UC) and they were matched with people who did not have IBD. They calculated risk for the three primary outcomes of myocardial infarction, stroke and death.

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Key findings include:

• Patients with CD had a higher risk for myocardial infarction than controls (incidence ratio = 1.64 per 1,000 person-years).


• The risk was more prominent among patients older than 40 years (IR = 0.69 per 1,000 person-years) and among women (IR = 2.35 per 1,000 person-years).


• Women with UC, but not men, were at higher risk for myocardial infarction (IR = 2.01 per 1,000 person-years).

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"Patients with CD are at a higher risk of heart attack and mortality than in the general population. The higher risk of MI in female IBD patients and disease-specific mortality among IBD should be further studied in the future," concluded the authors.