Association Between Parkinson's Disease and Coronary Artery Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: The relationship between Parkinson's disease (PD) and coronary artery disease (CAD) is unclear.

Objective: This study aims to investigate whether PD and CAD are associated through systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

Methods: Electronic database search of PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science for observational studies published from 1 January 2010 to 1 August 2021 was conducted using terms related to PD and CAD. Unadjusted risk ratios (RR) and odds ratios (OR) of included cohort and case-control studies respectively were used to ascertain the association between PD and CAD. Study heterogeneity was evaluated using the I2 test.

Results: Forty-one full-text studies were initially retrieved for eligibility assessment. Five studies that satisfied the inclusion criteria, consisting of three cohort and two case-control studies, were eventually included in this meta-analysis. The five studies enrolled 35,237 PD patients and 650,866 non-PD patients. PD and CAD were found to be significantly associated in cohort studies (RR = 2.23, 95% CI = 1.08-4.59, p = 0.03; Fig. 2), which held after sensitivity analysis (RR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.31-1.60, p < 0.001; Fig. 3). Case-control studies found a trend towards association of PD and CAD approaching significance (OR = 1.47, 95% CI = 0.84-2.56, p = 0.18; Fig. 2).

Conclusion: Overall, this meta-analysis suggests that PD is associated with CAD. The underlying mechanisms, as well as the role of ethnicity and other comorbidities on the relationship between PD and CAD should be further explored.