Inflammatory Bowel Disease Tied to Higher Risk for Heart Disease

WEDNESDAY, Feb 5, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Male patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) face a higher risk for ischemic heart diseases (IHDs), according to a study published in the March issue of the International Journal of Cardiology Cardiovascular Risk and Prevention.

Noa Cohen-Heyman and Gabriel Chodick, Ph.D., both from Tel Aviv University in Israel, investigated the association between IBD and long-term risk for IHD. The analysis included 14,768 patients diagnosed with IBD (from January 1990 to July 2021; 6,144 with ulcerative colitis and 8,624 with Crohn disease) and 120,338 matched individuals without IBD.

The researchers found that during a mean follow-up of 10.5 years, 1.9 percent of participants with IBD and 1.0 percent of the reference group experienced a composite outcome of IHD, myocardial infarction, undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, or undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (composite hazard ratio [HR], 1.98). A higher risk for IHD was associated with IBD only in male patients (HR, 1.82), whereas a negative association was seen among female patients (HR, 0.72). When limiting analyses to patients with Crohn disease, patients with ulcerative colitis, patients on steroids, and patients on immunosuppressants, results were similar.

“High-risk individuals could be evaluated for early biomarkers predictive of future IHD, such as high-sensitive cardiac troponin, potentially making them candidates for preventive interventions, including daily aspirin administration,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text