TY - JOUR

T1 - Rheumatoid cachexia and cardiovascular disease

AU - Metsios, G S

AU - Stavropoulos-Kalinoglou, A

AU - Panoulas, V F

AU - Sandoo, A

AU - Toms, T E

AU - Nevill, A M

AU - Koutedakis, Y

AU - Kitas, G D

PY - 2010/2/13

Y1 - 2010/2/13

N2 - OBJECTIVE: It has been frequently stated that rheumatoid cachexia (RC) associates with increased cardiovascular risk; however, no studies to date have investigated this. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of RC with multiple novel and classical cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and the presence of established CVD in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).METHODS: A total of 34 RA patients with RC (RA+RC) were identified from a database of 400 RA patients using published RC criteria and compared to the remaining patients (RA-RC) who did not fulfil RC criteria. All patients were assessed for fat and fat-free mass, albumin (indicator of catabolism), disease activity/severity, novel and classical risk CVD factors and established CVD.RESULTS: Fat-free mass (kg) and albumin (g/L) were significantly decreased in RA+RC vs. RA-RC patients: 37.3(33.9-41.6) vs. 45.9(41.2-55.5), p<0.001 and 39.6 + or - 6.7 vs. 42.4 + or - 4.9, p=0.001). Percent body fat was not significantly different. No significant differences were detected in either the classical or novel CVD risk factors, 10-year CVD risk or the prevalence of established CVD.CONCLUSIONS: RC does not appear to be associated with worse CVD profile in RA patients, but this needs to be confirmed in prospective studies.

AB - OBJECTIVE: It has been frequently stated that rheumatoid cachexia (RC) associates with increased cardiovascular risk; however, no studies to date have investigated this. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of RC with multiple novel and classical cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and the presence of established CVD in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).METHODS: A total of 34 RA patients with RC (RA+RC) were identified from a database of 400 RA patients using published RC criteria and compared to the remaining patients (RA-RC) who did not fulfil RC criteria. All patients were assessed for fat and fat-free mass, albumin (indicator of catabolism), disease activity/severity, novel and classical risk CVD factors and established CVD.RESULTS: Fat-free mass (kg) and albumin (g/L) were significantly decreased in RA+RC vs. RA-RC patients: 37.3(33.9-41.6) vs. 45.9(41.2-55.5), p<0.001 and 39.6 + or - 6.7 vs. 42.4 + or - 4.9, p=0.001). Percent body fat was not significantly different. No significant differences were detected in either the classical or novel CVD risk factors, 10-year CVD risk or the prevalence of established CVD.CONCLUSIONS: RC does not appear to be associated with worse CVD profile in RA patients, but this needs to be confirmed in prospective studies.

KW - Aged

KW - Aged, 80 and over

KW - Analysis of Variance

KW - Arthritis, Rheumatoid

KW - Body Mass Index

KW - Cachexia

KW - Cardiovascular Diseases

KW - Chi-Square Distribution

KW - Comorbidity

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Obesity

KW - Prevalence

KW - Prospective Studies

KW - Risk Factors

KW - Severity of Illness Index

KW - Statistics, Nonparametric

KW - Journal Article

M3 - Article

C2 - 20149317

VL - 27

SP - 985

EP - 988

JO - Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology

JF - Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology

SN - 0392-856X

IS - 6

ER -