Rheumatoid Arthritis Raises Women's Risk of Heart Attack

A study has found that women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have double the risk of heart attacks compared with women without RA. The results were reported in the February 17, 2003, rapid access issue of Circulation.

The study found that the risk of stroke was similar in RA patients and patients without RA, while the risk of heart attacks showed a two-fold increase over the risk in women without RA. The association remained even after adjusting for known and potential cardiovascular risk factors. Moreover, women with RA for at least 10 years had three times the risk of heart attack compared to women without. The body mass index of women with RA was slightly less and physical activity levels significantly lower than in women without RA.

The findings demonstrate that RA should be a recognized marker for increased risk of a heart attack, according to Daniel H. Solomon, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston, MA, USA). "It would be prudent to consider aggressive cardiac preventive measures in patients with RA to address coronary heart disease risk factors.”
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital studied the relationship between RA and heart attack risk by using the database from the Nurses' Health Study, involving 114,342 women and representing 2.4 million years of follow-up.



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