title: Ankylosing spondylitis: a risk factor for myocardial infarction?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To ascertain the prevalence of myocardial infarction (MI) in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) relative to that in the general population.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was sent to 593 patients with AS, aged between 50 and 75 years and registered at the Jan van Breemen Institute or VU University Medical Centre. A total of 383 (65%) patients with AS returned their questionnaire that covered the primary outcome, (non-fatal) MI. The prevalence of MI was calculated with data from the general population provided by Netherlands Information Network of General Practice databases as reference.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall prevalence for MI was 4.4% in patients with AS versus 1.2% in the general population, resulting in an age- and gender-adjusted odds ratio of 3.1 (95% CI 1.9 to 5.1) for patients with AS. When non-responders (35%) were considered as non-MI the odds ratio decreased to 1.9 (95% CI 1.2 to 3.2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These observations indicate that the prevalence of MI is increased in patients with AS.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: M J L
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Visman
authors.forename: M M J
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Nielen
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Van Dillen
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Verheij
authors.forename: I E
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: van der Horst-Bruinsma
authors.forename: B A C
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Dijkmans
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Nurmohamed
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D013167:Spondylitis, Ankylosing / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology