Heart Failure and Ischemic Heart Disease in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis

• Published in: Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2017-12, Vol.70 (24), p.3069-3071
• Main Authors: Løgstrup, Brian B., Ellingsen, Torkell, Pedersen, Alma B., Kjærsgaard, Anders, Bøtker, Hans Erik, Maeng, Michael
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Arthritis; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - complications; Cardiology; Cardiovascular disease; Comorbidity; Coronary artery disease; Female; Global Health; Health risk assessment; Heart diseases; Heart failure; Heart Failure - epidemiology; Heart Failure - etiology; Humans; Incidence; Ischemia; Male; Middle Aged; Myocardial Ischemia - epidemiology; Myocardial Ischemia - etiology; Patients; Rheumatoid arthritis; Risk Assessment - methods; Risk Factors
• ISSN: 0735-1097; 1558-3597
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2017.10.028

The aim of this population-based, cohort comparison study, based on all patients diagnosed with RA in Denmark over a 21-year period, was to determine the prevalence of HF and IHD before and the incidence after the established RA diagnosis.[...]we compared patients with RA versus age- and sex-matched persons from the general population without RA.Crude and adjusted proportional subdistribution hazards ratios (sHRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) accounting for competing risk of death were calculated to assess the risk of HF and IHD by comparing patients with RA and the comparison cohort without RA in a pre-defined 0 to 10-year time period after the index date.[...]RA patients have a similar prevalence of HF and IHD before the RA diagnosis as a matched comparison cohort, but patients with RA are at increased risk of HF and IHD up to 10 years after a diagnosis of RA. 1 S.E. Gabriel, Heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis: understanding the risks, Ann Rheum Dis, Vol. 69, Iss.