In a previous post we discussed the findings of a research team from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota on the relationship between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Their report indicated that there are risk factors that can identify RA patients who are at high risk for development of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Sherine Gabriel of the Mayo Clinic, lead author of the previous study, and her colleagues have issued another report on the link between RA and cardiovascular disease. This report, published in the January, 2008 issue of the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, looked at the frequency of traditional cardiovascular risk factors to determine the impact of these factors on selected cardiovascular events, such as heart attack, heart failure and cardiovascular-related death.
The study group consisted of 603 rheumatoid arthritis patients and 603 patients without RA.
Initially, both groups had similar cardiovascular risks. During the follow up periods, 15 years for the RA group, 17 years for the non-RA group, the RA patients were more likely to lose weight, and less likely to develop abnormally high or low levels of cholesterol.
The team did find that gender, smoking and personal cardiac history resulted in different cardiovascular risk impacts on RA vs. non-RA patients. Specifically, men who smoked and had a personal cardiac history had a lower increase in risk of cardiovascular disease than non-RA males that smoked and had a personal cardiac history.
This indicates that there are different mechanisms in rheumatoid arthritis patients that lead to cardiovascular disease. The weaker effect of some of the traditional risk factors indicates that traditional approaches for controlling cardiovascular risks may not have the same benefit for RA patients.
The report concluded that additional research is needed to detect the underlying factors that determine rheumatoid arthritis-associated cardiovascular disease and mortality so therapeutic approaches can be developed.
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Originally posted 2008-01-08 18:06:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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