People with autoimmune rheumatic diseases, where the immune system attacks its own body, are more likely to have heart attacks and other cardiovascular (CV) diseases than the general population. Idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) is a rare autoimmune disease where both skeletal and heart muscle can be affected. Little is known of the risks of CV events, such as heart attacks, and blood clots in IIM.
Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a common anti-malaria medication, has been shown to reduce the risk of clots in people with another autoimmune disease called systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Little is known about the potential effect of HCQ to reduce this risk in patients with IIM, like it does in SLE.
COVID has been associated with an increased risk of CV events and an increase in occurrence of autoimmune conditions. Data is limited in assessing the impact of COVID on developing IIM and other autoimmune diseases in addition to the CV event risk in patients with IIM.
- To better understand the increased risk of CV events and clots in patient with IIM in England and whether hydroxychloroquine reduces this risk.
- To investigate the impact of COVID infection and COVID vaccination on this CV risk.
- To determine if COVID infection and COVID vaccination has influenced the number of new cases of IIM and other autoimmune connective tissue diseases.
Results from this study will help to determine background risk of CV events and thromboembolic disease in IIM patients in England, compared to the general population, and the possible impact of hydroxychloroquine. This could advise on a potential future research studies of hydroxychloroquine in these patients with the hope of identifying a treatment that could reduce the risk of CV events.
The results will also help us to determine if COVID has impacted the risk of CV events and in people developing IIM and other connective tissue diseases.
We will utilise one of the largest datasets available to examine the influence of COVID infection and COVID vaccination on the incidence of IIM and other rare autoimmune diseases and to investigate any time relationship. This may provide valuable information about a potential underlying cause of IIM.