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CORONARY ARTERY ATHEROSCLEROSIS IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: PREVALENCE AND EARLY PREDICTION

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Purpose:To evaluate the ability of coronaryartery calcium scoring and carotid ultrasonographyto predict sub clinicalatherosclerosisin Rheumatoid Arthritis(RA) patients, to study the possiblerisk factors compared with agematchedcontrols and correlate thescoringwith disease characteristicsandclinical variables. Material andMethods:Forty five patients with RAwithno cardiovascular risks were includedand were compared to 45ageand sex matched controls. All includedRA patients and controlgroup < br />are subjected to; clinical assessmentincluding Disease ActivityScore28 (DAS28) , laboratory andradiologicalinvestigations. Radiologically,carotid ultrasonography and multislice CT non enhanced coronarycalcium scoring and post contrastcoronary angiography weredone.Results: RA patients havehigherrisk of cardiovascular disease(CVD)compared with control agematchedgroup and at younger age.Carotidintimal medial thickness andpresenceof plaques are closely relatedto the degree of coronary arteriescalcium scoring (CACS). Patientswithhigher CACS are more vulnerableto cardiovascular diseases atyoungerage which is has higher incidencein RA patients that the controlgroup.63% of RA patients hadCACS>10compared with 4.4% of agematched control group. Conclusion:RA patients have higher risk ofcoronaryarteries diseases especiallythosewith higher disease activity. CT coronary arteries angiographyshould be limited to patients with carotidarteries ultrasound findings suspectinghigh cardiovascular (CV)risk.CT coronary angiography is anaccurate imaging modality help inearly detection of subclinical athero-sclerosis in RA patients as well asidentifying CV high risk groups.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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