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Strong Association Found Between Fibrotic Lung Disorders And Coronary Artery Disease
Archives of Internal Medicine
03/10/2004
By Elda Hauschildt
There is a strong association between fibrotic lung disorders and coronary artery disease (CAD), research in the United States indicates.
Fibrotic lung diseases were associated with an increased prevalence of CAD in a study of 630 patients referred for lung transplantation evaluation, say researchers led by Jorge Kizer, MD, MSc, of Weill Medical College, Cornell University, New York.
"The association reflects the use of patients with non-fibrosing lung diseases as the reference category," the researchers explain. "The strength of the association might have differed had the comparisons been performed with adults free of lung disease.
Participants were evaluated for lung transplantation at the University of Pennsylvania from July 1992 until December 2000. Those referred because of chronic rejection of a previous transplant or with radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis were excluded.
All patients diagnosed with fibrosing interstitial lung disease were put in a fibrotic lung disorders category. Those with diseases in which fibro-proliferation was not a dominant pathogenetic feature were placed in the reference category, non-fibrotic disorders. Patients with pulmonary fibrosis were subdivided into non-granulomatous and granulomatous categories, with those in the non-granulomatous group further subdivided into an idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) subset.
The odds ratio for increased prevalence of CAD was 2.18 for fibrotic lung diseases compared with non-fibrotic diseases, after investigators adjusted for traditional risk factors. Both the magnitude and significance of the association remained when only non-granulomatous fibrosis or the IPF subset was examined.
When multi-vessel disease was analysed, the strength of the relationship increased, with an odds ratio of 4.16.
The researchers say further research is needed to confirm the relationship between fibrotic lung diseases and CAD and to look at pathological processes underlying the two conditions.
Archives of Internal Medicine 2004;164:551-556.
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