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5-Year Cardiac Structure Changes Noted in RA
Int J Cardiol; 2017 Aug 1; Davis III, Lin, et al
A pattern of echocardiographic findings in a recent study confirms previous cross-sectional studies and indicates that subclinical changes in diastolic function occur more rapidly over 5 years in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) than in the general population. A prospective longitudinal study of a population-based cohort of 160 patients with RA and a population-based cohort of 1,391 persons without RA (non-RA cohort) was performed. Each participant underwent 2-dimensional, pulsed-wave tissue Doppler echocardiography at baseline and after 4 to 5 years of follow-up. Age- and sex-adjusted linear regression models were used to test for differences between the RA and non-RA cohorts in annualized rates of change for echocardiographic parameters. Researchers found:
- Mitral A velocity increased more rapidly among the patients with RA than the non-RA cohort.
- Correspondingly, the mean mitral inflow E/A ratio decreased faster in the RA cohort than the non-RA cohort.
- The left atrial volume index increased at a higher rate in the RA cohort than the non-RA cohort.
Davis III JM, Lin G, Oh JK, et al. Five-year changes in cardiac structure and function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared with the general population. Int J Cardiol. 2017;240:379-385. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2017.03.108.