Relationships Between Bronchodilators, Steroids, Antiarrhythmic Drugs, Antidepressants, and Benzodiazepines and Heart Disease and Ischemic Stroke in Patients With Predominant Bronchiectasis and Asthma

Colchicine Is a Weapon for Managing the Heart Disease Among Interstitial Lung Disease With Viral Infection: Have We Found the Holy Grail?

Background

This study investigated the effect of colchicine use on the risks of heart disease (HD), pericarditis, endocarditis, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, cardiac arrhythmia, and cardiac failure in patients having interstitial lung disease (ILD) with virus infection (ILD cohort).

Methods

We retrospectively enrolled ILD cohort between 2000 and 2013 from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database and divided them into colchicine users (n = 12,253) and colchicine non-users (n = 12,253) through propensity score matching. The event of interest was the diagnosis of HD. The incidence of HD was analyzed using multivariate Cox proportional hazards models between colchicine users and the comparison cohort after adjustment for age, sex, medication, comorbidities, and index date based on the time-dependent analysis.

Results

Colchicine users had a significantly lower risk of HD (aHR = 0.87, 95% confidence interval (CI]) = 0.82–0.92) than did the colchicine non-user. For colchicine non-users as the reference, the aHR (95% CI) of the patients who received colchicine of 2–7, 8–30, 31–150, and > 150 days were 0.89 (0.81–0.98), 0.84 (0.76–0.94), 090 (0.80–0.99), and 0.83 (0.74–0.93), respectively; regardless of duration use, the lower risk of HD persisted in colchicine users. The cumulative incidence of HD in colchicine users was significantly lower than that in the colchicine non-users (log-rank p < 0.001).

Conclusion

The addition of short-term or long-term colchicine to standard medical therapy may have benefits to prevent the HD among the ILD patients concurrent with a virus infection or comorbidities even in elderly patients.

Effects of statins on the risks of ischemic stroke and heart disease in human immunodeficiency virus infection, influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus: respiratory virus infection with steroid use

OBJECTIVES

We sought to fill the research gap on the effects of statins on the risks of ischemic stroke and heart disease among individuals with human immunodeficiency virus infection, influenza, and severe acute respiratory syndrome associated-coronavirus (HIS) disorders.

METHODS

We enrolled a HIS cohort treated with statins (n = 4921) and a HIS cohort not treated with statins (n = 4921). The cumulative incidence of ischemic stroke and heart disease was analyzed using a time-dependent Cox proportional regression analysis. We analyzed the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of ischemic stroke and heart disease for statins users relative to nonusers based on sex, age, comorbidities and medications.

RESULTS

The aHR (95% CI) was 0.38 (0.22-0.65) for ischemic stroke. The aHR (95% CI) of heart disease was 0.50 (0.46-0.55). The aHRs (95% CI) of statin users with low, medium, and high adherence (statin use covering <33%, 33%-66%, and >66%, respectively, of the study period) for the risks of ischemic stroke were 0.50 (0.27-0.92), 0.31 (0.10-1.01), and 0.16 (0.04-0.68) and for heart disease were 0.56 (0.51-0.61), 0.40 (0.33-0.48), and 0.44 (0.38-0.51), respectively, compared with statin nonusers.

CONCLUSION

Statin use was associated with lower aHRs for ischemic stroke and heart disease in those with HIS disorders with comorbidities.