TUESDAY, Sept. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with coronary artery disease are also at greater risk for colorectal neoplasms, according to a report in the Sept. 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Annie On On Chan, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Hong Kong, China, and colleagues recruited patients who reported for coronary angiography at three Hong Kong hospitals between 2004 and 2006. These were divided into a group of 206 patients who tested positive for coronary artery disease (CAD) and 208 who tested negative. Both groups subsequently received colonoscopies, as did a control group that was age and sex-matched to the CAD-positive group. All participants were asymptomatic for colonic disease.
Colorectal neoplasms were discovered in 34 percent of the CAD-positive group compared to 18.8 percent of the CAD-negative group and 20.8 percent of the control group. Advanced colorectal lesions were found in 18.4 percent of the CAD-positive group versus 8.7 percent of the CAD-negative group and 5.8 percent of the control group.
There were nine adenocarcinomas found in the CAD-positive group (4.4 percent) versus one (0.5 percent) in the CAD-negative group and three (1.4 percent) in the control group. A history of smoking and metabolic syndrome were strongly linked to advanced colorectal lesions and CAD.
Chronic inflammation resulting from underlying risk factors "may be the culprit for the simultaneous development of the two conditions," the authors write.
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