Dose-dependent oral glucocorticoid cardiovascular risks in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: A population-based cohort study

by Mar Pujades-Rodriguez, Ann W. Morgan, Richard M. Cubbon, Jianhua Wu BackgroundGlucocorticoids are widely used to reduce disease activity and inflammation in patients with a range of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. It is uncertain whether or not low to moderate glucocorticoid dose increases cardiovascular risk. We aimed to quantify glucocorticoid dose-dependent cardiovascular risk in people with 6 immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Methods and findingsWe conducted a population-based cohort analysis of medical records from 389 primary care practices contributing data to the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), linked to hospital admissions and deaths in 1998 –2017. We estimated time-variant daily and cumulative glucocorticoid prednisolone-equivalent dose-related risks and hazard ratios (HRs) of first all-cause and type-specific cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). There were 87,794 patients with giant cell arteritis and/or polymyalgia rheumatica (n = 25,581), inflammatory bowel disease (n = 27,739), rheumatoid arthritis (n = 25,324), systemic lupus erythematosus (n = 3,951), and/or vasculitis (n = 5,199), and no prior CVD. Mean age was 56 years and 34.1% were men. The median follow-up time was 5.0 years, and the proportions of person –years spent at each level of glucocorticoid daily exposure were 80% for non-use, 6.0% for
Source: PLoS Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Source Type: research