Abstract 9767: History of Gallstones and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: Prospective Cohorts and Systematic Review

Introduction: Recent evidence suggests that gut microbiota functions like a metabolically active ‘organ’ and influences cardiovascular risk. Gallstone patients are characterized by gut microbiota dysbiosis and distorted metabolism; however, the relation between gallstones and coronary heart disease (CHD) is less well established. Methods: We examined the association between a history of gallstones and risk of CHD in 3 large prospective cohorts, and conducted a meta-analysis of published data with our result. A prospective study of 225,430 women and 44,637 men without CHD at baseline from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) (112,509 women; 1980-2010), NHS II (112,921 women; 1989-2011) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) (44,637 men; 1986-2010). Other prospective cohort studies on a history of gallstones and risk of CHD were identified in searches of PUBMED and EMBASE up to March 2015. Results: After adjustment for potential confounders, the hazard ratio (HR) for the participants with a gallstone history as compared with those without was 1.16 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.10-1.22) for NHS, 1.33 (95% CI 1.17-1.51) for NHS II and 1.11 (95% CI 1.03-1.20) for HPFS (all: p-value < 0.01). The associations appeared to be stronger in individuals with BMI<30kg/m2 than ≥30kg/m2. Based on a meta-analysis of seven cohort studies including 356,105 participants and 27,790 incident cases of CHD, a history of gallstone disease was associated with a 25% (95% CI 13%-37%) increase in risk of CHD. Conclusions: Findings from prospective cohort studies consistently support a history of gallstones as an independent predictor of CHD risk.