Cardiomyopathy, pericarditis and myocarditis in a population-based cohort of inpatients with coeliac disease.

OBJECTIVES

We investigated the risk of myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, and pericarditis in patients with celiac disease (CD) from a general population cohort.

SUBJECTS AND

METHODS

Through the Swedish national registers we identified 9363 children and 4969 adults with a diagnosis of CD (1964-2003). These individuals were matched with upto five reference individuals for age, sex, calendar year and county (n = 69 851). Cox regression estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for later heart disease.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Myocarditis, cardiomyopathy (any or dilated), and pericarditis defined according to relevant international classification of disease codes in the Swedish national inpatient register.

RESULTS

Celiac disease diagnosed in childhood was not associated with later myocarditis (HR = 0.2; 95% CI = 0.0-1.5), cardiomyopathy of any type (HR = 0.8; 95% CI = 0.2-3.7), or pericarditis (HR = 0.4; 95% CI = 0.1-1.9). Restricting our analyses to adulthood CD and heart disease diagnosed from 1987 and onwards in departments of cardiology/internal medicine, we found no association between CD and later myocarditis (HR = 2.1; 95% CI = 0.4-11.7), dilated cardiomyopathy (HR = 1.7; 95% CI = 0.4-6.5) or pericarditis (HR = 1.5; 95% CI = 0.5-4.0).

CONCLUSION

This study found no association between CD, later myocarditis, cardiomyopathy or pericarditis.