Rheumatoid arthritis increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by 1.5 to 2 times compared to the general population, necessitating effective control of systemic inflammation and traditional risk factors.
This review emphasizes the critical need for cardiovascular risk screening and management in rheumatoid arthritis patients due to the significant impact of chronic inflammation and RA medications on cardiovascular health.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common rheumatologic disease characterized by inflammation with a definite relationship with heart disease. Impaired immunity, chronic inflammation, genetic susceptibility, autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction, altered metabolic profile have been blamed for ischemic and non-ischemic heart diseases in RA patients. Medications used in RA treatment can also modify the risk of heart diseases by different mechanisms. Understanding the pathogenesis is essential to prevent early cardiac dysfunction in RA patients. Fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis await further elucidation. Disease management is of great importance since the cardiovascular (CV) events are known to be reduced with low disease activity. Discovery of new mechanisms will pave the way for the development of novel treatment modalities. This review highlights the epidemiology, pathogenesis, risk factors, diagnosis and screening methods and management of CV comorbidities in RA patients. Besides impact of RA medications and exercise on CV risk are summarized.
Özkan et al. (Wed,) conducted a review in Rheumatoid arthritis and cardiovascular comorbidities. Rheumatoid arthritis increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by 1.5 to 2 times compared to the general population, necessitating effective control of systemic inflammation and traditional risk factors.