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Triantafyllias K, Liverakos S, Muthuraman M, Cavagna L, Parodis I, Schwarting A. Cardiovascular Risk Evaluation in Psoriatic Arthritis by Aortic Stiffness and the Systemic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE): Results of the Prospective PSOCARD Cohort Study. Rheumatol Ther 2024; 11:897-911. [PMID: 38819779 PMCID: PMC11265042 DOI: 10.1007/s40744-024-00676-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2024] [Accepted: 05/01/2024] [Indexed: 06/01/2024] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is associated with increased cardiovascular (CV) risk and mortality. Aortic stiffness measured by carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) has been shown to predict CV risk in the general population. The present study aimed to examine cfPWV values of patients with PsA compared to healthy controls and to evaluate associations of cfPWV with patient- and disease-associated characteristics, as well as with an established traditional CV prediction score of the European Society of Cardiology (Systemic Coronary Risk Evaluation; SCORE), for the first time. METHODS cfPWV and SCORE were evaluated in patients with PsA and healthy controls, along with clinical and laboratory disease parameters. Differences in cfPWV measurements between the two groups and associations of cfPWV with patient- and disease-associated characteristics were statistically evaluated. RESULTS A total of 150 patients with PsA (PSOCARD cohort) and 88 control subjects were recruited. cfPWV was significantly higher in the PsA group compared to controls, even after adjustment for confounders (padj = 0.034). Moreover, cfPWV was independently associated with disease duration (r = 0.304, p = 0.001), age (rho = 0.688, p < 0.001), systolic arterial pressure (rho = 0.351, p < 0.001), glomerular filtration rate (inverse: rho = - 0.264, p = 0.001), and red cell distribution width, a marker of major adverse CV events (MACE) (rho = 0.190, p = 0.02). SCORE revealed an elevated CV risk in 8.73% of the patients, whereas cfPWV showed increased aortic stiffness and end-organ disease in 16.00% of the same cohort. CONCLUSIONS In the largest cfPWV/PsA cohort examined to date, patients with PsA exhibited increased aortic stiffness compared to healthy controls. PsA duration was the most important independent disease-associated predictor of increased aortic stiffness, next to traditional CV risk factors. cfPWV measurements may help identify subclinical end-organ disease and abnormal aortic stiffness and thus assist CV risk classification in PsA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Konstantinos Triantafyllias
- Rheumatology Center Rhineland-Palatinate, Bad Kreuznach, Germany
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
| | | | | | - Lorenzo Cavagna
- University and IRCCS Policlinic S. Matteo Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Ioannis Parodis
- Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden
| | - Andreas Schwarting
- Rheumatology Center Rhineland-Palatinate, Bad Kreuznach, Germany.
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
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Triantafyllias K, Thiele LE, Mandel A, Cavagna L, Baraliakos X, Bertsias G, Hasseli R, Minnich P, Schwarting A. Arterial Stiffness as a Surrogate Marker of Cardiovascular Disease and Atherosclerosis in Patients with Vasculitides: A Literature Review. Diagnostics (Basel) 2023; 13:3603. [PMID: 38132187 PMCID: PMC10743173 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics13243603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2023] [Revised: 11/25/2023] [Accepted: 11/30/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Vasculitis, a group of systemic inflammatory diseases that affect the cardiovascular (CV) system, presents with a variety of clinical manifestations that depend on the size of the affected blood vessels. While some types of vasculitis reveal distinct symptoms, others are characterized by more diffuse and nonspecific presentations that can result in delayed diagnosis and treatment initiation. Interestingly, patients with vasculitides share a significant comorbidity: an elevated CV risk, contributing to increased rates of CV events and mortality. This heightened risk is caused by cumulative inflammatory burden, traditional CV risk factors, medication effects, and reduced physical fitness. Traditional risk assessment tools, commonly used in the general population, frequently underestimate the CV risk in patients with inflammatory rheumatic conditions. Consequently, novel approaches are necessary to stratify the precise CV risk in vasculitis patients. A number of surrogate parameters for CV risk have been investigated, with arterial stiffness emerging as a promising marker. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a well-established method for assessing arterial stiffness and predicting CV risk across different populations. Among numerous PWV variants, carotid-femoral PWV (cfPWV) stands out as the most extensively studied and accepted reference standard. It has demonstrated its utility as a surrogate CV parameter both in the general population and in patients with systemic inflammatory rheumatic diseases. In recent years, research has expanded to assess arterial stiffness in systemic rheumatic diseases, such as arthritis, connective tissue diseases, rheumatologic overlap syndromes, and chronic pain disorders, using measurements of PWV and other markers of arterial compliance and elasticity. Despite burgeoning research in rheumatologic diseases, data on CV risk markers in vasculitides remain limited and fragmented. This narrative review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of arterial stiffness as a potential screening marker for CV diseases, atheromatosis, and ultimately CV risk among patients with vasculitides.
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Affiliation(s)
- Konstantinos Triantafyllias
- Rheumatology Center Rhineland-Palatinate, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 9-11, 55543 Bad Kreuznach, Germany (P.M.)
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University, 55131 Mainz, Germany
| | - Leif-Erik Thiele
- Rheumatology Center Rhineland-Palatinate, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 9-11, 55543 Bad Kreuznach, Germany (P.M.)
| | - Anna Mandel
- Department of Internal Medicine, Helios Clinic, 47805 Krefeld, Germany
| | - Lorenzo Cavagna
- Department of Rheumatology, University and IRCCS Policlinico S. Matteo Foundation Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Xenofon Baraliakos
- Rheumazentrum Ruhrgebiet Herne, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44649 Herne, Germany
| | - George Bertsias
- Department of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71500 Heraklion, Greece
| | - Rebecca Hasseli
- Department of Internal Medicine D, Section of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Hospital Munster, 48149 Munster, Germany
| | - Pascal Minnich
- Rheumatology Center Rhineland-Palatinate, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 9-11, 55543 Bad Kreuznach, Germany (P.M.)
| | - Andreas Schwarting
- Rheumatology Center Rhineland-Palatinate, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 9-11, 55543 Bad Kreuznach, Germany (P.M.)
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University, 55131 Mainz, Germany
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Triantafyllias K, Thiele LE, Cavagna L, Baraliakos X, Bertsias G, Schwarting A. Arterial Stiffness as a Surrogate Marker of Cardiovascular Disease and Atherosclerosis in Patients with Arthritides and Connective Tissue Diseases: A Literature Review. Diagnostics (Basel) 2023; 13:diagnostics13111870. [PMID: 37296720 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics13111870] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2023] [Revised: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The increased cardiovascular (CV) risk among patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases, such as arthritides and connective tissue diseases, has been extensively documented. From a pathophysiological standpoint, systemic inflammation in the context of the disease can lead to endothelial dysfunction, accelerated atherosclerosis, and structural changes in vessel walls, which, in turn, are associated with exaggerated CV morbidity and mortality. In addition to these abnormalities, the increased prevalence of traditional CV risk factors, such as obesity, dyslipidemia, arterial hypertension, and impaired glucose metabolism, can further worsen the status of and overall prognosis for CV in rheumatic patients. However, data on appropriate CV screening methods for patients with systemic autoimmune diseases are scarce, and traditional algorithms may lead to an underestimation of the true CV risk. The reason for this is that these calculations were developed for the general population and thus do not take into account the effect of the inflammatory burden, as well as other chronic-disease-associated CV risk factors. In recent years, different research groups, including ours, have examined the value of different CV surrogate markers, including carotid sonography, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, and flow-mediated arterial dilation, in the assessment of CV risk in healthy and rheumatic populations. In particular, arterial stiffness has been thoroughly examined in a number of studies, showing high diagnostic and predictive value for the occurrence of CV events. To this end, the present narrative review showcases a series of studies examining aortic and peripheral arterial stiffness as surrogates of all-cause CV disease and atherosclerosis in patients with rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, as well as in systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic sclerosis. Moreover, we discuss the associations of arterial stiffness with clinical, laboratory, and disease-specific parameters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Konstantinos Triantafyllias
- Rheumatology Center Rhineland-Palatinate, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 9-11, 55543 Bad Kreuznach, Germany
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University, 55131 Mainz, Germany
| | - Leif-Erik Thiele
- Rheumatology Center Rhineland-Palatinate, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 9-11, 55543 Bad Kreuznach, Germany
| | - Lorenzo Cavagna
- Department of Rheumatology, University and IRCCS Policlinico S. Matteo Foundation Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Xenofon Baraliakos
- Rheumazentrum Ruhrgebiet Herne, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44649 Herne, Germany
| | - George Bertsias
- Department of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71500 Heraklion, Greece
| | - Andreas Schwarting
- Rheumatology Center Rhineland-Palatinate, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 9-11, 55543 Bad Kreuznach, Germany
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University, 55131 Mainz, Germany
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Mandel A, Schwarting A, Cavagna L, Triantafyllias K. Novel Surrogate Markers of Cardiovascular Risk in the Setting of Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases: Current Data and Implications for the Future. Front Med (Lausanne) 2022; 9:820263. [PMID: 35847825 PMCID: PMC9279857 DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2022.820263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2021] [Accepted: 05/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Patients suffering from rheumatologic diseases are known to have an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although the pathological mechanisms behind this excess risk have been increasingly better understood, there still seems to be a general lack of consensus in early detection and treatment of endothelial dysfunction and CVD risk in patients suffering from rheumatologic diseases and in particular in those who haven't yet shown symptoms of CVD. Traditional CVD prediction scores, such as Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE), Framingham, or PROCAM Score have been proposed as valid assessment tools of CVD risk in the general population. However, these risk calculators developed for the general population do not factor in the effect of the inflammatory burden, as well as other factors that can increase CVD risk in patients with rheumatic diseases, such as glucocorticoid therapy, abnormal lipoprotein function, endothelial dysfunction or accelerated atherosclerosis. Thus, their sole use could lead to underestimation of CVD risk in patients with rheumatic diseases. Therefore, there is a need for new biomarkers which will allow a valid and early assessment of CVD risk. In recent years, different research groups, including ours, have examined the value of different CVD risk factors such as carotid sonography, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, flow-mediated arterial dilation and others in the assessment of CVD risk. Moreover, various novel CVD laboratory markers have been examined in the setting of autoimmune diseases, such as Paraoxonase activity, Endocan and Osteoprotegerin. Dyslipidemia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is for instance better quantified by lipoproteins and apolipoproteins than by cholesterol levels; screening as well as pre-emptive carotid sonography hold promise to identify patients earlier, when prophylaxis is more likely to be effective. The early detection of subtle changes indicating CVD in asymptomatic patients has been facilitated through improved imaging methods; the inclusion of artificial intelligence (AI) shows promising results in more recent studies. Even though the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases has been examined in multiple studies, as we continuously gain an increased understanding of this comorbidity, particularly in subclinical cases we still seem to fail in the stratification of who really is at risk—and who is not. A the time being, a multipronged and personalized approach of screening patients for traditional CVD risk factors, integrating modern imaging and further CV diagnostic tools and optimizing treatment seems to be a solid approach. There is promising research on novel biomarkers, likewise, methods using artificial intelligence in imaging provide encouraging data indicating possibilities of risk stratification that might become gold standard in the near future. The present review concentrates on showcasing the newest findings concerning CVD risk in patients with rheumatologic diseases and aims to evaluate screening methods in order to optimize CVD risk evaluation and thus avoiding underdiagnosis and undertreatment, as well as highlighting which patient groups are most at risk.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Mandel
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany
| | - Andreas Schwarting
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany
- Department of Rheumatology, Rheumatology Center RL-P, Bad Kreuznach, Germany
| | - Lorenzo Cavagna
- Division of Rheumatology, University and IRCCS Policlinico S. Matteo Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Konstantinos Triantafyllias
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany
- Department of Rheumatology, Rheumatology Center RL-P, Bad Kreuznach, Germany
- *Correspondence: Konstantinos Triantafyllias
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Dimitroulas T, Anyfanti P, Bekiari E, Angeloudi E, Pagkopoulou E, Kitas G. Arterial stiffness in rheumatoid arthritis: Current knowledge and future perspectivess. INDIAN JOURNAL OF RHEUMATOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.4103/injr.injr_254_21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
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Triantafyllias K, Cavagna L, Klonowski A, Drott U, Fiehn C, Wendel S, Bergner R, de Blasi M, Voll RE, Baulmann J, Konstantinides S, Galle PR, Schwarting A. Possible misclassification of cardiovascular risk by SCORE in antisynthetase syndrome: results of the pilot multicenter study RI.CAR.D.A. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2021; 60:1300-1312. [PMID: 32940712 DOI: 10.1093/rheumatology/keaa525] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2020] [Revised: 06/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To test the ability of an established traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk prediction score [Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE)] and its EULAR modified version (mSCORE) to identify antisynthetase syndrome (ASyS) patients at high CV risk and to examine for the first time associations of CV and cerebrovascular surrogate markers with clinical and immunological ASyS parameters. METHODS SCORE/mSCORE and the gold standard marker of aortic stiffness [carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV)] were examined in ASyS patients and healthy controls. Moreover, sonography of the common- (CCA) and internal- (ICA) carotid arteries was performed in subsets of both groups, evaluating carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), plaques and Doppler sonographic cerebrovascular surrogates [resistance (RI) and pulsatility (PI) indices]. RESULTS We recruited 66 ASyS patients and 88 controls. According to mSCORE, 10% of the patients had high CV risk. However, cfPWV and carotid sonography revealed an increased CV risk in 21.2% and subclinical carotid atherosclerosis (SCA) in 85.7% of the patients, respectively. cfPWV and cIMT were higher in patients compared with controls (Padj=0.021 and Padj=0.003, respectively). In the ASyS group, cfPWV and cIMT correlated significantly with age (r = 0.679; P<0.001 and r = 0.664; P<0.001, respectively). Moreover, cfPWV correlated with BMI (Padj=0.001) and diabetes (Padj=0.043). CCA-RI and CCA-PI showed significant associations with creatine phosphokinase (r = 0.629; P=0.012 and r = 0.574; P=0.032, respectively) and ICA-RI and ICA-PI were higher in patients with lung involvement (both; P=0.039). CONCLUSION ASyS patients had higher aortic stiffness and SCA compared with controls, even after adjustment for confounders. SCORE/mSCORE performed poorly in identifying high-risk patients compared with cfPWV and carotid sonography. Thus, cfPWV and carotid sonography may improve CV and cerebrovascular screening in ASyS.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lorenzo Cavagna
- Department of Rheumatology, University of Pavia and IRCCS Policlinico S. Matteo Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Anna Klonowski
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany
| | - Ulrich Drott
- Department of Rheumatology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Christoph Fiehn
- Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Baden-Baden Medical Center, Baden-Baden, Germany
| | - Sarah Wendel
- Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Raoul Bergner
- Department of Rheumatology, Ludwigshafen Hospital, Ludwigshafen, Germany
| | - Michele de Blasi
- Department of Rheumatology, ACURA Rheumatology Center, Bad Kreuznach, Germany
| | - Reinhard E Voll
- Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Johannes Baulmann
- Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Center Rheinbach, Rheinbach, Germany.,Department of Cardiology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Stavros Konstantinides
- Department of Internal Medicine II, Center for Thrombosis and Hemostasis, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany
| | - Peter R Galle
- Department of Internal Medicine I, Gastroenterology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany
| | - Andreas Schwarting
- Department of Rheumatology, ACURA Rheumatology Center, Bad Kreuznach, Germany.,Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany
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Feng X, Hao X, Shi R, Xia Z, Huang L, Yu Q, Zhou F. Detection and Comparative Analysis of Methylomic Biomarkers of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Front Genet 2020; 11:238. [PMID: 32292416 PMCID: PMC7119472 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2020.00238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2019] [Accepted: 02/28/2020] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune disorder influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. To investigate possible contributions of DNA methylation to the etiology of RA with minimum confounding genetic heterogeneity, we investigated genome-wide DNA methylation in disease-discordant monozygotic twin pairs. This study hypothesized that methylomic biomarkers might facilitate accurate RA detection. A comprehensive series of biomarker detection algorithms were utilized to find the best methylomic biomarkers for detecting RA patients using the methylomic data of the peripheral blood samples. The best model achieved 100.00% in accuracy (Acc) with 81 methylomic biomarkers and a 10-fold cross-validation (10FCV) strategy. Some of the methylomic biomarkers were experimentally confirmed to be associated with the onset or development of RA. It is also interesting to observe that many of the detected biomarkers were from chromosome Y, supporting the knowledge that RA has a significant gender discrepancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Feng
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun, China.,Jilin Institute of Chemical Technology, Jilin, China.,BioKnow Health Informatics Lab, College of Computer Science and Technology, and Key Laboratory of Symbolic Computation and Knowledge Engineering of Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Xubing Hao
- BioKnow Health Informatics Lab, College of Software, and Key Laboratory of Symbolic Computation and Knowledge Engineering of Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Ruoyao Shi
- BioKnow Health Informatics Lab, College of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Zhiqiang Xia
- BioKnow Health Informatics Lab, College of Computer Science and Technology, and Key Laboratory of Symbolic Computation and Knowledge Engineering of Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Lan Huang
- College of Computer Science and Technology, and Key Laboratory of Symbolic Computation and Knowledge Engineering of Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Qiong Yu
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Fengfeng Zhou
- BioKnow Health Informatics Lab, College of Computer Science and Technology, and Key Laboratory of Symbolic Computation and Knowledge Engineering of Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China
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Wang P, Huang L, Xu Q, Xu L, Deng FY, Lei SF. Assessment of Aortic Stiffness in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Using Pulse Wave Velocity: An Update Meta-analysis. Arch Med Res 2019; 50:401-412. [DOI: 10.1016/j.arcmed.2019.10.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2019] [Revised: 06/16/2019] [Accepted: 10/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
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Yang Y, Wang Z, Fu Z, Yang R, Wang J, Yuan L, Gao F, Duan Y. Stiffening of aorta is more preferentially associated with rheumatoid arthritis than peripheral arteries. Rheumatol Int 2019; 39:1711-1721. [DOI: 10.1007/s00296-019-04405-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2019] [Accepted: 07/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
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Increased arterial stiffness in rheumatoid arthritis and Its relation to disease activity: A cross sectional study. Egypt Heart J 2018; 70:35-40. [PMID: 29622995 PMCID: PMC5883511 DOI: 10.1016/j.ehj.2017.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2017] [Accepted: 11/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with elevated plasma level of inflammatory markers. Chronic inflammation is known to predispose to endothelial dysfunction and increased arterial stiffness, which is an important marker of subclinical atherosclerosis and increased cardiovascular risk. Objective The aim is to test for the relationship between disease activity and arterial stiffness in RA patients. Methods The study included 90 RA patients, at different grades of disease activity and 45 healthy subjects, as a control group. Patients were subjected to full history taking and clinical examination, laboratory investigations including serum lipid profile and high sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) measurements and plain x-rays of hands and feet. Modified Larsen method was used as radiographic scoring method. Disease activity score (DAS 28) was used for assessment of disease activity. Transthoracic echocardiography was performed to detect aortic stiffness parameters. Duplex ultrasound imaging of both common carotid arteries was performed to measure carotid stiffness parameters. Results The mean age of RA patients was 39.86 ± 9.39 years and most of them (83.3%) were females. RA patients had higher carotid stiffness index compared to control group patients (8.57 ± 4.83 vs 4.08 ± 1.13, p < .001). Very poor correlation was found between DAS-28 and aortic (r = 0.1, p = .28) as well as carotid (r = 0.05, p = .7) stiffness indices. No statistically significant correlation was found between hs-CRP and aortic stiffness index (r = 0.64, p = .55). Disease duration was significantly correlated to intima-media thickness (p < .01) as well as with other carotid stiffness parameters. Age also show a statistically significant positive correlation with carotid stiffness parameters. Conclusion RA is associated with increased arterial stiffness, a well-recognized marker of cardiovascular risk. This is attributed to the inflammatory nature of the disease. It seems that the most important factors determining stiffness are patients' age and duration of illness.
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