Abstract Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), likely driven by systemic inflammation. Treating inflammation may reduce this risk. We aimed to investigate MACE across different therapies in patients with IBD. Methods We used Swedish nationwide registers (2007–2023) to describe MACE rates (ischemic heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and cardiovascular mortality) in patients with IBD receiving different therapies. For contextualization, we compared MACE rates during therapy exposure periods in patients with IBD with matched (by age, sex, and residence) general population comparators without IBD. Comparisons included exposure periods naïve to immunomodulators/advanced therapies and periods of different treatments (immunomodulators, TNF-α inhibitors (TNFi), vedolizumab, ustekinumab, and Janus kinase inhibitors). Each patient could contribute with multiple periods, with a new period starting upon switch of therapy. Incidence rates (IRs) and adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) were estimated by using Cox regression (Model 1: conditioned on matching variables; Model 2: additional adjustment for Charlson Comorbidity Index). Among patients with IBD, we performed 1:1 propensity score (PS)-matched analysis, with exposure periods of TNFi or vedolizumab as the reference, to compare MACE rates between advanced therapies. In these comparisons, we adjusted for demographics, disease characteristics, healthcare utilization, prior treatment, and cardiovascular risk factors. Results We included 106,894 patients with IBD with 99,661 exposure periods naïve to immunomodulators/advanced therapy, 60,573 exposure periods of immunomodulators, and 71,551 of advanced therapies. Distribution of age, sex and disease duration differed substantially across therapy exposures (data not shown). Compared with the general population, MACE rates in patients with IBD were similar across therapies (IRs=3.0-13.0/1,000 person-years; aHRs=1.02-1.49) (Table 1), and significantly increased only for exposure periods naïve to immunomodulators/advanced therapy, immunomodulators, or ustekinumab. In PS-matched comparisons, no significant differences were found between periods of TNFi, vedolizumab and other advanced therapies (Table 2). Conclusion Therapy exposure periods in patients with IBD showed only slightly increased MACE rates compared to corresponding periods in the general population, and significantly so only for periods naïve to immunomodulators/advanced therapy and exposure to immunomodulators or ustekinumab. In PS-matched analyses of patients with IBD, no significant differences in MACE rates were observed when comparing exposure periods of different advanced therapies. Conflict of interest: Eriksson, Carl: Served as speaker/advisory board member for Janssen Cilag AB and Tillotts Pharma. Forss, Anders: Served as speaker/advisory board member for Janssen Cilag AB and Tillotts Pharma. Singh, Siddharth: Dr. Singh has research grants from Pfizer. Halfvarson, Jonas: Grant support: Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (RB13-0160 to J.H.), the Swedish Research Council (2020-02021 to J.H.), the Örebro University Hospital research foundation (OLL-890291 to J.H.), NordForsk (90569 to J.H.) and Vinnova ( 2019-01185 to JH and 2024-01155 co-applicant), IHI, EU, INTERCEPT (Grant agreement number 101194780, co-applicant), miGut-Health, HORIZON-HLTH-2022, EU (Grant Agreement 101095470, Co-applicant), 3TR, IMI 2, EU, (Grant agreement number 831434, Co-applicant), Janssen, MSD, and Takeda. Consulting and/or advisory board fees from: AbbVie, Alfasigma, Aqilion, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, Celltrion, Eli Lilly, Ferring, Galapagos, Gilead Sciences, Hospira, Index Pharmaceuticals, Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, MEDA, Medivir, Medtronic, Merck, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Prometheus Laboratories Inc., Sandoz, Shire, STADA, Takeda, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Tillotts Pharma, Vifor Pharma, UCB and speaker’s fees from: AbbVie, Alfasigma, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Ferring, Galapagos, Gilead, Hospira, Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Shire, Takeda, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Tillotts Pharma and research grant support from Janssen, Merck Sharp & Dohme and Takeda. Sun, Jiangwei: No conflicts Söderling, Jonas: Dr. Söderling has worked on projects at Karolinska Institutet and SWIBREG partly financed by grants from Ferring and Janssen. Everhov, Åsa H: Dr Everhov has worked on projects at Karolinska Institutet and SWIBREG, partly financed by grants from Ferring and Janssen. Bröms, Gabriella: Dr. Bröms has served as a speaker for Takeda and Janssen and worked on projects at Karolinska Institutet, partly financed by Janssen, UCB and Pfizer. James, Stefan: Dr. James reports institutional research grants from Novo Nordisk, Astra Zeneca, Amgen, Jansen, Alnylam and proctor fees from Medtronic. Ludvigsson, Jonas: Dr. Ludvigsson has coordinated an unrelated study for the Swedish IBD Quality Register (SWIBREG). That study received funding from Jansen Corporation. Ludvigsson has also received financial support from MSD/Merck for unrelated research on inflammatory bowel disease, and for developing a paper reviewing national healthcare registers in China. Ludvigsson has an ongoing research collaboration with Takeda about celiac disease and is discussing additional collaboration on chronic liver disease with this company. Olen, Ola: Karolinska Institutet has received research grants from Pfizer, Janssen, AbbVie, Takeda, Ferring, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Alfasigma for projects led by Olén. Ola Olén has also received fees for lectures from Pfizer, Janssen, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Takeda.
Eriksson et al. (Thu,) studied this question.