Understanding the Role of Autoimmune Disorders on the Initial Presentation of Cardiovascular Disease: a CALIBER Proposal Using Linked GPRD-MINAP-HES Data
Understanding the Role of Autoimmune Disorders on the Initial Presentation of Cardiovascular Disease: a CALIBER Proposal Using Linked GPRD-MINAP-HES Data
Autoimmune diseases are diseases in which inappropriate immune responses that have the capability of harming host cells play an important role. Evidence suggests that the presence of certain autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or systematic lupus erythematosus increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, this evidence is inconsistent for autoimmune disorders and no systematic approach has been previously used to study the relationship between a range of common autoimmune disorders and specific forms of cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction, intracerebral and subarachnoid haemorrhage, or venous thrombosis.
The investigators will use linked electronic health records to investigate whether commonly diagnosed autoimmune disorders are associated with increased risk of CVD development and whether effects differ in men and women and change with age.
The linkage of Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) to the national registry of acute coronary syndromes (the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project, MINAP), Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and Office for National Statistics (ONS) available through CALIBER (Cardiovascular disease research using linked bespoke studies and electronic records), offers an opportunity to investigate the association between autoimmune disorders and the initial presentation of non-fatal and fatal specific cardiovascular phenotypes. The use of a systematic approach to investigate whether a range of commonly diagnosed autoimmune disorders are independent risk factors for several specific and well defined arterial and venous diseases will help to improve the investigators understanding of the role of autoimmune disorders in development of specific types of CVD in both men and women and in different age groups. It will also provide useful information to improve existing cardiovascular risk prediction methods that are used in clinical practice for patient management.
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