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Study predicts Cardiovascular Disease risk
for Rheumatoid Arthritis patients
Newswise — People with rheumatoid arthritis
have a higher risk for developing heart
disease than the general population;
however, it is difficult to identify which
patients are at increased risk. Researchers
at Mayo Clinic have developed a simple
approach to predict heart disease in these
patients within ten years of their initial
diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. The
findings of this Mayo Clinic research study
are being presented at the American College
of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in
Boston, Nov. 6-11, 2007.
Previous research by the Mayo Clinic team
identified a link between rheumatoid
arthritis patients and increased risk for
heart disease. A major challenge for
physicians is detection and prevention of
heart disease in rheumatoid arthritis
patients who show no symptoms of heart
disease. The goal of this latest study is to
find a way to detect the risk of heart
disease earlier in patients with rheumatoid
arthritis.
“Rheumatoid arthritis sufferers are dealing
with significant pain and stress, therefore
cardiovascular disease prevention may be
delayed,” says Hilal Maradit Kremers, M.D.,
lead study investigator and research
associate in the Mayo Clinic Department of
Health Sciences Research.
“Our findings
indicate that evaluation of cardiovascular
risk based on risk factor profiles of
individual patients can help physicians
identify high risk rheumatoid arthritis
patients and assist with decisions
concerning cardiovascular disease
prevention.”
Mayo Clinic researchers estimated the
10-year absolute risk of cardiovascular
disease in a group of 553 patients diagnosed
with rheumatoid arthritis and compared them
with 574 patients of the same age and gender
who did not have rheumatoid arthritis.
The
researchers collected detailed information
about all study subjects’ cardiac events and
their traditional cardiovascular risk
factors: diabetes, blood pressure,
cholesterol, body mass index and smoking./b>
Using absolute risk analysis methods,
researchers discovered that 85 percent of
those 60 to 69 year olds who were newly
diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis patients
had a 1 in 5 chance of developing a serious
cardiovascular event, compared to only 40
percent of patients who did not have
rheumatoid arthritis. In each age group,
cardiovascular risk in rheumatoid arthritis
patients was similar to that of
nonrheumatoid arthritis subjects who were
5-10 years older.
“These results emphasize the importance of
performing a comprehensive cardiovascular
risk assessment for all newly diagnosed
rheumatoid arthritis patients,” says Sherine
Gabriel, M.D., the study’s senior author and
Mayo Clinic rheumatologist and
epidemiologist.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic,
autoimmune disease that causes pain,
swelling, stiffness and loss of function in
multiple joints. Rheumatoid arthritis is a
systemic disease and also may affect other
organs of the body including the lungs,
heart and kidneys. Rheumatoid arthritis
affects about 2.1 million Americans, mostly
women and generally striking between the
ages of 20 and 50.
Members of the Mayo Clinic study team
include: Hilal Maradit-Kremers, M.D.,
Cynthia Crowson, Terry Therneau, Ph.D;
Veronique Roger, M.D., and Sherine Gabriel,
M.D. Their work was supported by grants from
the National Institutes of Health; in
particular, the National Institute of
Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin
Diseases.
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