Non-invasive assessment of arterial stiffness in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of literature studies

Ann Med. 2015 Sep 4:1-11

21 September Sep 2015 10 years ago
  • Ambrosino P, Tasso M, Lupoli R, Di Minno A, Baldassarre D, Tremoli E, Di Minno MN
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have an increased cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality. Pulse-wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AIx) are non-invasive methods to assess arterial stiffness, a marker of CV risk.

The Authors performed a meta-analysis evaluating the impact of RA on aortic-PWV, brachial-PWV, brachial-ankle (ba-) PWV, AIx, and AIx normalized to a 75 beats/minute heart rate (AIx@75).Meta-regression showed that a more severe inflammatory status impacted on aortic-PWV, AIx, and AIx@75. Arterial stiffness, a recognized marker of CV risk, is increased in RA patients. This alteration is associated with the severity of the inflammatory status and is present even in early-stage disease.

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