The Risk of Cardiovascular Complications in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Abstract
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encompassing Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (UC), is a chronic, relapsing-remitting inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract. Beyond intestinal involvement, IBD commonly affects diverse organ systems in the body, making it a ‘systemic disease with intestinal predominance’.
While extraintestinal manifestations are primarily due to immune-mediated involvement of organ systems, IBD also exerts systemic effects on the cardiovascular system. Emerging data suggests an association between IBD and myocardial infarction (MI), ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular accidents, and other major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). As a result, the pathophysiological basis of cardiovascular complications in IBD has been a subject of growing investigation.
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