Current Arthritis News and Research » cardiovascular disease

Gout Increases Heart Attack Risk

awesome — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:46:24 +0000

Gout is a form of arthritis that is caused by an excess of uric acid in the bloodstream. This causes crystals to form in the joints, typically in the big toe.

Results of a recent research project, carried out by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, indicates that people with existing risk factors for heart disease may have an increased risk for heart attack or stroke if they also develop gout.

The study involved over 9,000 men who were between 41 and 63 years old. They all had above average risk for heart disease, with factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking.

The researchers found that after 17 years the men who developed gout were 30% more likely to die from cardiac arrest or other cardiovascular disease than those without gout.

Not all men with elevated uric acid levels develop gout. Men in this study that had high levels of uric acid, but did not develop gout, did not have a higher risk of cardiovascular related death.

This study supports the findings in a 2004 study of 1,423 middle aged Finnish men. That research found that men with excess uric acid in the blood had a 250% greater risk of death from cardiovascular disease than those with normal levels.

One theory is that an excess of uric acid in the bloodstream causes “oxidative stress”, which results in the LDL cholesterol being oxidized. Oxidized LDL is viewed as more dangerous because it causes hardening and narrowing of the arteries.

Originally posted 2008-07-22 21:20:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Cardiovascular Risks Vary for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

awesome — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:29:10 +0000

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.

Originally posted 2008-01-08 18:06:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Cardiovascular Disease Risk Higher for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

awesome — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:50:26 +0000

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have a higher risk for developing cardiovascular disease than the general population. Up till now it has been difficult to identify which of these patients were actually had an increased risk. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota have developed a simple process to predict which of these patients will most likely develop heart disease within 10 years of their initial RA diagnosis.

The Mayo Clinic has previously lead research that determined there is a link between RA and increased risk for heart disease. The next step is to determine which of these RA patients has the higher risk so that appropriate treatment can be started to improve the heart related outcome.

Dr. Hilal Maradit Kremers, a research associate in the Mayo Clinic Department of Health Sciences Research, led the study to identify the risk factors.

They analyzed the risk factor profiles of 553 RA patients with cardiovascular disease within 10 years of their RA diagnosis and 574 RA patients without heart disease. They collected detailed information about all of the study’s participants cardiac events as well as traditional cardiovascular risk factors, such as diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index and smoking.

The researchers, using absolute risk analysis methods, discovered that 85 percent of those aged 60 to 69, who were newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, had a 1 in 5 chance of developing a serious cardiovascular event. This compares with only 40% of those patients who did not have RA.

Dr. Sherine Gabriel, the study’s lead author, stated “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.”

The findings of this Mayo Clinic research study were presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston, Nov. 6-11, 2007.

Originally posted 2007-11-22 16:16:07. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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RA Patients Have Higher Cardiovascular Death Risk

awesome — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:48:12 +0000

Researchers from the University of British Columbia and the Arthritis Center of Canada are reporting that analysis of patient data shows that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have a 50% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD) than the general population. In addition, the study shows that the CVD mortality rate of people with RA has not improved as has the rates for the general population.

To perform their analysis, the researchers pulled data from 24 observational studies including over 110,000 patients with nearly 23,000 cardiovascular events.

The researchers found that RA patients had a 59% increase in risk of death from heart disease and a 52% increased risk of death from stroke when compared to the general population. In total, the analysis revealed a 50% increased risk in CVD death in patients with RA and there was no difference in the risk between men and women.

“Previously, not all studies have consistently found this increased risk,” said lead researcher Dr. J. Antonio Aviña-Zubieta. “We firmly establish that CVD is increased in RA.”

The researchers, who published their report in the December 15, 2008, issue of Arthritis Care & Research, did note that most of the studies that were included in this analysis enrolled patients prior to the widespread use of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) drugs. Recent evidence seems to indicate that treatment with anti-TNF medications may improve the CVD mortality rates in RA patients.

One of those recent studies, published in the July 2007 issue of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, suggests that treatment with anti-TNFs may mitigate the increased CVD risk for RA patients. This analysis indicates that anti-TNFs may reduce the risk to levels similar to the general population. Anti-TNFs, however, were associated with higher rates of infection in RA patients.

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