Researchers have shown for the first time that people with autoimmune diseases are more likely to be affected by cardiovascular disorders.
- Patients with autoimmune disease have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease than people without autoimmune disease.
- The risk is between 1.4 and 3.6 times higher, depending on the case.
- This excess risk is particularly higher in younger patients.
In a vast study epidemiology, researchers from the Catholic University of Louvain (KU Leuven) show that patients with an autoimmune disease have a higher risk (between 1.4 and 3.6 times higher, depending on the case) of developing cardiovascular disease than people without autoimmune disease.
In their work, published in The Lancetthe authors show that the group of nineteen autoimmune diseases they studied account for approximately 6% of cardiovascular events. This excess risk is comparable to that of type 2 diabetes, a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Higher excess risk in younger people
This excess risk is particularly higher in younger patients. This suggests that autoimmune diseases have an important implication in the onset of premature cardiovascular disease, which could lead to a disproportionate loss of life expectancy and disability.
About 10% of the population in high-income regions like Europe or the United States is diagnosed with one or more autoimmune diseases. Among them: rheumatoid arthritis, Addison’s disease, psoriasis, systemic sclerosis, lupus erythematosus and type I diabetes.
22 million patient records analyzed
Although previous research has suggested associations between some of these disorders and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, these studies were often too small to draw conclusive evidence. This time, the study was based on electronic health records from the UK’s Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), a very large database of anonymised data of 22 million patient records.
