Vascular Disease among Hospitalized Multiple Sclerosis Patients

BACKGROUND: We examined the prevalence of cardiac and cerebrovascular disease among hospitalized patients with and without multiple sclerosis (MS). METHODS: This study used the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperate System data set of over 15 million hospitalizations in New York City from 1988 through 2002. We identified MS patients 40-84 years of age who were hospitalized for reasons other than MS or related complications. MS patients were matched 1:2 on age, gender, race/ethnicity, and insurance. Outcomes included a principal discharge diagnosis of ischemic heart disease [International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) 410-414], myocardial infarction (ICD-9 410), and ischemic stroke (ICD-9 434, 436). Multivariate logistic regression was used to compare vascular disease outcomes in MS and non-MS patients controlling for demographic and clinical factors. RESULTS: Our study included 9,949 hospitalizations among MS patients and 19,898 hospitalizations for matched non-MS controls. MS patients were less likely to be hospitalized for ischemic heart disease (OR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.51-0.66) or myocardial infarction (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.64-0.96), but more likely to be hospitalized for ischemic stroke (OR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.33-2.09) than matched non-MS controls. CONCLUSION: MS patients have decreased rates of hospital admission for ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction, but increased rates of hospitalization for ischemic stroke as compared to the general non-MS population.