Cardiovascular involvement in connective tissue disease: the role of interstitial lung disease.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess cardiovascular involvement in patients with connective tissue disease (CTD), and determine whether interstitial lung disease (ILD) in these patients is associated with elevated cardiovascular risk. METHODS: This study evaluated a retrospective cohort of 436 CTD patients admitted to a large teaching hospital in Zhejiang province, China, along with an additional 436 participants of an annual community health screening conducted in the physical examination center who served as age- and gender-matched controls. Demographic, clinical, serologic and imaging characteristics, as well as medications used by each participant were recorded. Cardiovascular involvement was defined by uniform criteria. Correlations between clinical/serologic factors and cardiovascular involvement were determined by univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: CTD patients had a significantly higher cardiovascular involvement rate than controls (64.7% vs 23.4%), with higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, elevated systolic and diastolic pressures, C-reactive protein, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and lower albumin and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (all p 2 years, use of moderate- to high-dose glucocorticoids, and ILD with a high alveolar inflammation score. CONCLUSION: Cardiovascular involvement is increased in CTD patients, and is associated with ILD with a higher alveolar inflammation score. Thus, early-stage echocardiography and CT scans should be used to detect potential cardiovascular complications in these patients.