Subclinical Carotid Atherosclerosis in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis at Low Cardiovascular Risk

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the rate of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis and clinical significance of immunoinflammatory markers in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at low cardiovascular risk. Materials and Methods: The study included 275 RA patients and a control group of 100 participants without autoimmune diseases. All study participants were at low cardiovascular risk, calculated by the QRISK3 scale (p = 0.03. The frequency of ASP in RA patients did not depend on the disease’s stage or activity. There was a significant correlation between cIMT and age, cardiovascular risk determined by QRISK3, level of total cholesterol, LDL, and blood pressure in RA patients, p < 0.05 in all cases. No correlation between cIMT and blood levels of sCD40L, sVCAM, and sICAM was found. In RA patients, a higher concentration of sVCAM was detected in the carotid ASP group compared to the non-atherosclerotic group. sCD40L was associated with cIMT and total cholesterol in the ASP group and with total cholesterol and blood pressure in non-atherosclerotic patients. Conclusions: Subclinical atherosclerotic lesions of the carotid arteries were observed significantly more frequently in RA patients with low cardiovascular risk than in the control group. The results of the study demonstrate the association between cIMT, traditional cardiovascular risk factors, and immunoinflammatory markers in RA patients.

Keywords

• rheumatoid arthritis
• carotid atherosclerosis
• cardiovascular risk factors
• QRISK3
• intima-media thickness
• sICAM-1