RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Extent of Subclinical Atherosclerosis Is Partially Predicted by the Inflammatory Load: A Prospective Study over 5 Years in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Matched Controls
JF The Journal of Rheumatology
JO J Rheumatol
FD The Journal of Rheumatology
SP jrheum.140694
DO 10.3899/jrheum.140694
A1 Anna Södergren
A1 Kjell Karp
A1 Christine Bengtsson
A1 Bozena Möller
A1 Solbritt Rantapää-Dahlqvist
A1 Solveig Wållberg-Jonsson
YR 2015
UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2015/04/09/jrheum.140694.abstract
AB Objective This prospective followup study investigated subclinical atherosclerosis in relation to traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) recruited at diagnosis compared with controls. Methods Patients diagnosed with early RA were consecutively recruited into a prospective study. From these, a subgroup aged ≤ 60 years (n = 71) was consecutively included for ultrasound measurement of intima-media thickness (IMT) and flow-mediated dilation (FMD) at inclusion (T0) and after 5 years (T5). Age- and sex-matched controls (n = 40) were also included. Results In the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, both IMT and FMD were significantly aggravated at T5 compared to baseline in patients with RA, whereas only IMT was significantly increased in controls. In univariate linear regression analyses among patients with RA, the IMT at T5 was significantly associated with age, systolic blood pressure (BP), cholesterol, triglycerides, Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE), and Reynolds Risk Score at baseline (p < 0.05). Similarly, FMD at T5 was significantly inversely associated with age, smoking, systolic BP, SCORE, and Reynolds Risk Score (p < 0.05). A model with standardized predictive value from multiple linear regression models including age, smoking, BP, and blood lipids at baseline significantly predicted the observed value of IMT after 5 years. When also including the area under the curve for the 28-joint Disease Activity Score over 5 years, the observed value of IMT was predicted to a large extent. Conclusion This prospective study identified an increased subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with RA. In the patients with RA, several traditional CVD risk factors at baseline significantly predicted the extent of subclinical atherosclerosis 5 years later. The inflammatory load over time augmented this prediction.