Women With PCOS Are at Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Regardless of Diagnostic Criteria: A Prospective Population-Based Cohort Study
Aim
Polycystic ovary syndrome ( PCOS) is associated with many risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. However, it remains debatable whether the presence of multiple CVD risk factors translates into an increase in CVD events.
Design
A population-based prospective northern Finnish birth cohort, 1966.
Methods
People with an expected birth date of 1966 in northern Finland have been followed from birth.
Women in the cohort were classified as having PCOS according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) criteria (n=144) or the Rotterdam criteria (n=386) at age 31 years, and were compared to women without PCOS.
The study population was re-examined at age 46 years and the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), including myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, heart failure, and cardiovascular mortality, was recorded up to age 53 years.
Results
During the 22-year follow-up , both women with NIH-PCOS and women with Rotterdam-PCOS had a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular events than control women.
The BMI-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for MACE in the Rotterdam-PCOS group and the NIH-PCOS group was 2.33 (1.26–4.30) and 2.47 (1.18–5.17 ), respectively.
The cumulative risk curves in both diagnostic categories began to diverge at age 35.
Regarding individual CVD endpoints, AMI was significantly more common in both NIH-PCOS women (p=0.010) and Rotterdam-PCOS women (p=0.019), compared to control women.
Conclusions
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