according to a study of potential RA patients who underwent cardiac MRI.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study showing subclinical increase in aortic stiffness in at-risk individuals for RA, with values numerically close to those seen in early, treatment-naive RA,” wrote Graham Fent, MBChB, of the University of Leeds (England) and his associates. The study was published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
Hypothesizing that patients with no systemic inflammation but circulating anti–cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibodies may already have cardiovascular concerns, Dr. Fent and his colleagues recruited 18 individuals at risk of developing RA and 30 healthy controls. The groups were matched for age and gender and then underwent multiparametric 3.0 Tesla cardiac MRI with late gadolinium enhancement. The at-risk individuals were classified as being at either low (n = 10) or high (n = 8) risk of RA. Over 12 months, five of the at-risk patients progressed to RA.
According to the cardiac MRI findings, aortic distensibility was lower – and thus arterial stiffness was greater – in the at-risk group (3.6 x 10–3 per mm Hg) versus the healthy controls (4.9 x 10–3 per mm Hg). The difference was even more distinct in the high-risk group (3.1 x 10–3 per mm Hg), compared with the low-risk group (4.2 x 10–3 per mm Hg). The group who eventually progressed to RA also showed lower levels of distensibility (3.2 x 10–3 per mm Hg).
The coauthors acknowledged that the major limitation of their study was a lack of control groups. However, they noted that such a pronounced level of aortic stiffness in the high-risk and RA groups should be seen as “implying a particular role of CCP antibodies.”
The study was supported by the U.K. National Institute for Health Research. One author reported being funded by a National Institute for Health Research grant; another reported being funded by a British Heart Foundation Personal Chair.
SOURCE: Fent G et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2019 Mar 9. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2018-214975.