Chronic idiopathic eosinopenia ups risk of long-term cardiovascular outcomes

Adults with chronic idiopathic eosinopenia appear to be at lower long-term risk of several atherosclerotic cardiovascular outcomes, suggests a study.

A total of 11,754 individuals with chronic eosinopenia and 23,508 matched controls (mean age 41.0 years, 77.7 percent female) were included in the study.

Eosinopenia correlated with lower incidence of ischaemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, coronary revascularization, cerebrovascular events, and peripheral vascular disease over a mean follow-up of 14.8 years. By contrast, eosinopenia was also associated with a higher incidence of pericarditis.

“Although causality cannot be inferred, the findings suggest a role for eosinophil-related pathways in cardiovascular disease and provide reassurance regarding the cardiovascular safety of therapies that reduce eosinophil levels,” the investigators said.

A nationwide electronic health record database was used to conduct this retrospective matched cohort study. The investigators matched adults with chronic idiopathic eosinopenia (≥3 consecutive eosinophil counts ≤ 0.05 × 10⁹/L within 2 years) to individuals with persistently normal eosinophil counts. Cox models were used to assess incident cardiovascular outcomes.

“Eosinophils are involved in inflammatory and thrombotic processes relevant to cardiovascular disease, but long-term implications of persistent eosinophil deficiency remain unclear,” the investigators said.