Su1295 Expression of Surrogate Markers for Early Atherosclerosis (ATS) in Young Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Compared With Healthy Controls (HC)

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: recent studies have documented an increased rate of cardiovascular events in IBD patients. Studies on surrogate markers for early ATS have led to conflicting results. Our aim was to investigate the prevalence of increased intima-media thickness (IMT) of the carotid arteries and of arterial stiffness in a homogeneous cohort of young patients with IBD. METHODS: we recruited 68 consecutive IBD patients (35 males), and 38 sex and age matched HC. Median age was 31.6 ± 8.1 years. Data on clinical and demographic features, cardiovascular risk factors, personal and familial history of cardiovascular events, concomitant therapies were registered on a dedicated database. Forty-five out of IBD patients had Crohn disease (CD) and 23 had Ulcerative Colitis (UC). Twenty-two CD patients had a disease duration greater than 5 years and 9 showed a clinically active disease. In the UC group 8 patients had a disease duration greater than 5 years and 3 clinically active disease. Sixteen out of 68 IBD patients were smokers, 9 ex-smokers; 29 had a family history of cardiovascular events, 3 were hypertensive and 2 patients had diabetes mellitus, 21 had a BMI greater than 25. Left and right carotid IMT was evaluated using high resolution Bmode ultrasonography. Arterial stiffness was assessed by measurement of carotid-femoral Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) and Augmentation Index (AI). RESULTS: there was a statistically significant difference between IBD patients and HC for total cholesterol values (P <0.013) and LDL-cholesterol (P <0.019). There was no difference in lipid profile between CD and UC. There was a trend toward significance in the distribution of BMI values between patients and HC (P 0.082). Right carotid IMT was higher in IBD group than in controls (P <0.047), but there was no statistically significant difference between subjects with CD and UC. Moreover, PWV average and AORTIC AIX (AIx) were significantly higher in patients than in controls (P <0.006 and P <0.004 respectively). CONCLUSION: in our study we have found increased expression of surrogate markers for early onset ATS in young Mediterranean patients with IBD. This seems not to be related to traditional risk factors for ATS. Clinical follow-up of IBD patients should include assessment at diagnosis and monitoring of IMT of the carotid arteries and of arterial elastic properties, in order to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events.