Retrospective matched cohort study finds increased odds of various cardiac comorbidities in adults with scoliosis, highlighting the need for long-term cardiovascular monitoring.
Key Points
To evaluate the association between different subtypes of scoliosis and long-term cardiac comorbidities in adult patients compared to controls without scoliosis.
Retrospective cohort analysis using the 2015–2021 PearlDiver database of patients aged 18 to 64 years with idiopathic (N=182,777), neuromuscular (N=16,845), and congenital scoliosis (N=2,404).
Scoliosis cohorts were matched 1:10 by age and sex to control patients without scoliosis who attended office visits.
Univariable analysis and multivariable logistic regression evaluated risks of cardiac arrest, congestive heart failure, arrhythmia, valvular disease, atrial fibrillation/flutter, and ischemic cardiac disease.
Idiopathic scoliosis was significantly associated with increased odds of aggregated cardiac history and all individual cardiac comorbidities (OR 1.11–1.72, P < 0.05 for all).
Neuromuscular scoliosis demonstrated substantially increased odds of aggregate cardiac history and every individual cardiac comorbidity evaluated (OR 1.17–4.30, P < 0.05 for all).
Congenital scoliosis was associated with increased odds of aggregate cardiac history and all individual cardiac comorbidities except ischemic cardiac disease (OR 1.27–2.14, P < 0.05 for all except ischemic disease).