Midway evaluation - Helga Bergljot Midtbø

ABSTRACT

Subclinical cardiovascular disease in patient with rheumatoid arthritis-relation to disease activity and cardiovascular risk factors

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have the same high risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease as patients with diabetes type II. The excess risk of CV disease has been attributed to a high prevalence of traditional CV risk factors among patients with RA in combination with systemic inflammation.

In this project we have assessed subclinical CV disease and the association with inflammatory disease activity and CV risk factors in patients with RA.

In study we found that RA disease activity was independently associated with changes in left ventricular structure. Study 2 will focus on left ventricular myocardial function assessed with speckle tracking echocardiography and data analyses to this study are still ongoing. In study 3 we found that even mild-moderate RA disease activity was associated with increased arterial stiffness, independent of hypertension.