The effect of biologic therapies on the risk of suffering a myocardial infarction (MI) in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis

Randell, Shane A. (2015) The effect of biologic therapies on the risk of suffering a myocardial infarction (MI) in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This case-control study aimed to test for significant difference between the risks of suffering a cardiovascular event between two groups of moderate to severe psoriasis (PSO) patients: those that had a biologic therapy (BT) and those that did not. The aim was to test for a protective factor in biologic therapies as patients with moderate to severe psoriasis have been reported to be at a higher risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event due to the chronic inflammatory nature of the disease. Cases were extracted from patient charts at Newlab Life Sciences, Inc. (NLS) and transferred to an electronic dataset, while controls were obtained from the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information (NLCHI). The results of a logistic regression failed to show a statistically significant relationship between the outcome, myocardial infarction (MI), and the use of a biologic therapy however, there was a protective trend for those patients on a biologic therapy. There also appeared to be a relationship between age of onset and MI, as those patients diagnosed before the age of 25 saw a statistically significant greater risk of suffering an MI than those diagnosed after the age of 25. There were several limitations to this study including limited data and confounders, such as lifestyle factors and the change in price and availability of biologics to PSO patients over time. Based on the current literature limited evidence exists that supports the hypothesis that there is a significant protective factor associated with biologics in relation to cardiovascular events.

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