title: Risk for myocardial infarction and stroke after community-acquired bacteremia: a 20-year population-based cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Infections may trigger acute cardiovascular events, but the risk after community-acquired bacteremia is unknown. We assessed the risk for acute myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke within 1 year of community-acquired bacteremia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This population-based cohort study was conducted in Northern Denmark. We included 4389 hospitalized medical patients with positive blood cultures obtained on the day of admission. Patients hospitalized with bacteremia were matched with up to 10 general population controls and up to 5 acutely admitted nonbacteremic controls, matched on age, sex, and calendar time. All incident events of myocardial infarction and stroke during the following 365 days were ascertained from population-based healthcare databases. Multivariable regression analyses were used to assess relative risks with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for myocardial infarction and stroke among bacteremia patients and their controls. The risk for myocardial infarction or stroke was greatly increased within 30 days of community-acquired bacteremia: 3.6% versus 0.2% among population controls (adjusted relative risk, 20.86; 95% CI, 15.38-28.29) and 1.7% among hospitalized controls (adjusted relative risk, 2.18; 95% CI, 1.80-2.65). The risks for myocardial infarction or stroke remained modestly increased from 31 to 180 days after bacteremia in comparison with population controls (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.18-2.27), but not versus hospitalized controls (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.69-1.32). No differences in cardiovascular risk were seen after >6 months. Increased 30-day risks were consistently found for a variety of etiologic agents and infectious foci.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Community-acquired bacteremia is associated with increased short-term risk of myocardial infarction and stroke.
authors: Department of Infectious Diseases, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark (M.D.-P., H.N.); Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark (M.D.-P., M.S., R.W.T.); and Department of Clinical Microbiology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark (H.C.S.).
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Dalager-Pedersen
authors: Mette
authors: M
authors: Søgaard
authors: Henrik Carl
authors: HC
authors: Schønheyder
authors: Henrik
authors: H
authors: Nielsen
authors: Reimar Wernich
authors: RW
authors: Thomsen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000150:complications*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000150:complications; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: epidemiology; infection; myocardial infarction; stroke