WEDNESDAY, April 7, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Among patients with a first myocardial infarction (MI) at a young age, 2.5 percent have a diagnosis of systemic inflammatory disease (SID) and an increased risk for all-cause mortality during a median of 11.2 years of follow-up, according to a study published online March 30 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
Brittany Weber, M.D., from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues examined the prevalence and prognostic implications of SID among adults who experienced an MI at a young age (50 years or younger). The cohort included 2,097 individuals, 53 (2.5 percent) of whom had a diagnosis of SID.
The researchers found that patients with SID were significantly more likely to be female and have hypertension. Patients with SID had an increased risk for all-cause mortality during a median follow-up of 11.2 years compared with the full cohort of non-SID patients and a cohort matched on age, gender, and cardiovascular risk factors (hazard ratios, 1.95 and 2.68, respectively).
“These patients were less likely to be prescribed guideline-based secondary prevention aspirin and statin therapy after acute MI,” the authors write. “These findings highlight the need for focused attention to SIDs in cardiovascular risk assessment and for implementation of more aggressive preventive therapies to reduce the burden of adverse cardiovascular events in young patients with underlying SID.”
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.
