WASHINGTON: Patients with a deadly lung disease
are three times as likely to experience severe coronary events - including heart attacks - than
their normal counterparts, according to a recent study.
The study is based on an analysis of cardiovascular disease risk in nearly 1,000 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and more than 3,500 matched controls.
IPF is a disorder characterised by progressive scarring (fibrosis) and deterioration of the lungs.
"If you look at them over time, people with IPF have roughly a three-fold increased risk of acute coronary syndrome, which is a greater increase than you get from smoking," said Richard B. Hubbard, professor of epidemiology at University of Nottingham and co-author of the study.
Hubbard and colleagues analysed data from the computerised records of the Britain's Health Improvement Network for 920 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and 3,593 control subjects without IPF for diagnoses of coronary events and disease incidence.
In addition to having a markedly increased risk of heart problems, patients with IPF were 23 percent more likely to have angina, had a 60 percent higher risk of stroke, and a three-fold increased risk of deep vein thrombosis, according to Hubbard.
