Patients with established rheumatoid arthritis have an increased burden of coronary calcification, which is associated with traditional risk factors like smoking and systemic inflammation.
May support enhanced CV screening in RA; leaves open whether inflammation-targeted therapy reduces calcification.
The prevalence and severity of coronary calcification is increased in patients with established RA and is related, in part, to smoking and an increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate.
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Chung et al. (2005) studied this question.
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