Rheumatoid arthritis patients 'have higher heart disease risk'
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a new study published in the Journal of Rheumatology.
Researchers from Monash University and the University of Melbourne in Australia studied 50 RA patients, while the control group had 150 participants.
Traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease were compared between the two groups in the study.
Compared to the control group, RA patients were more likely to smoke, to be physically inactive and to have higher mean body mass index and waist circumference.
However, there were no significant differences between plasma lipid or glucose mean levels, or in the prevalence of diabetes or hypertension.
"Smoking and physical inactivity are important risk factors in the management of cardiovascular risk among patients with RA. Subjects with RA seem to have higher absolute risks of [cardiovascular disease] compared with controls, even independently of smoking," the researchers concluded.
"This highlights the importance of treating all modifiable risk factors in those with RA although, individually, few may be conspicuous."
A spokesman for the Arthritis Research Campaign commented: "At any given age, a person with RA is on average twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease in the next year than a person of the same age and sex who does not have RA.
"The increased rate of heart disease might be related to the inflammation, which is a characteristic feature of RA.
"Work from our Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR) has shown that the level of the inflammatory protein, CRP, early in the course of RA identifies the people most at risk of developing coronary heart disease." 
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