The Association of Acute Myocardial Infarction with Pyogenic Spondylitis in Korea: A Nationwide Longitudinal Cohort Study

Abstract

Objective: The goal of this nationally matched longitudinal study was to investigate the relationship between acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and pyogenic spondylitis (PS) in Korea.Methods: We collected patient data from the National Health Insurance Service Health Screening cohort from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2015. PS was classified using the International Classification of Diseases codes M46.2 (osteomyelitis), M46.8 (inflammatory spondylopathy), M49.2 (enterobacterial spondylitis), and M49.3 (enterobacterial spondylitis) (spondylopathy in other infectious and parasitic diseases). The PS group had a total of 628 patients. The control group included 3,140 people. Utilizing the Kaplan-Meier technique, the groups’ AMI rates were estimated. A Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis was used to compute the hazard ratio for AMI.Results: After controlling for age and sex, the hazard ratio for AMI in the PS group was 2.241 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.112-4.516). The adjusted hazard ratio in the PS group was 2.138 after controlling for demographics and concomitant medical conditions (95% CI, 1.056-4.318). In a subgroup analysis, the AMI percentages were substantially greater in the PS group in women over 65, those with diabetes, and in non-hypertension and non-dyslipidemia subgroups. Conclusion: This nationwide longitudinal study found that PS patients had an elevated risk of AMI.