Scott Cunningham, MD, PhD | March 29, 2022
Although traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors for ACS have been established for patients < 40 and > 40 years of age, the effect of secondary diagnoses with SLE and APLS on CV risk, if any, is not known.
The National Inpatient Sample database (2016-2018) served as the source for data in this study. Eligible patients were adults who were hospitalized due to ACS as the primary diagnosis, with or without SLE or APLS as a secondary diagnosis. The patients were grouped according to age as follows: < 40 years; and > 40 years. The primary outcome was ACS.
Based on the National Inpatient Sample database (2016-2018), a total of 55,050 and 1,966,234 patients < 40 and > 40 years of age, respectively, were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of ACS.
Both groups of patients had traditional CV risk factors for ACS. Among the patients < 40 years of age, SLE (OR = 2.18) and APLS (OR = 2.18) were strong risk factors for ACS. Among the patients > 40 years of age, secondary diagnoses with SLE or APLS were not independently associated with risk for ACS.
Consider the findings from a similar research study:
Patients hospitalized for ACS with co-existing systemic sclerosis had increased inpatient mortality compared to patients without systemic sclerosis (Source).