The following is a summary of “Risk of cardiovascular comorbidities before and after the onset of rheumatic diseases,” published in the January 2024 issue of Rheumatology by Aaramaa et al.

This study aimed to comprehensively examine the risk and temporal relationship of cardiovascular (CV) comorbidities in various rheumatic diseases.

Patients diagnosed with seropositive (n=2,368) or seronegative (n=916) rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS, n=715), psoriatic arthritis (PsA, n=923), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, n=190), primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS, n=412), or gout (n=2,034) within the FinnGen study between 2000-2014 were identified through healthcare registries. Each patient was meticulously matched with twenty controls based on age, sex, and birth region, all without any rheumatic conditions. Risk ratios (RR) were calculated to compare the prevalence of seven CV diseases between patients and controls. Logistic regression models were utilized to estimate odds ratios (OR) for CV comorbidities both before and after the onset of rheumatic diseases.

The risk ratios for ‘any CVD’ ranged from 1.14 (95% CI 1.02-1.26) in PsA to 2.05 (95% CI 1.67-2.52) in SLE. Patients with SLE or gout exhibited over two-fold risks for several CV comorbidities, with venous thromboembolism (VTE) showing the highest effect sizes across multiple rheumatic diseases. Odds ratios for CV comorbidities were most pronounced within one year before and/or after the onset of the rheumatic disease. Notably, the excess risk of CV disease was particularly high in gout before the official diagnosis of gout.

The study revealed an elevated risk of CV comorbidities in all investigated rheumatic diseases, with the highest risks observed in SLE and gout. The heightened risk for CV diseases was most prominent immediately before and/or after the diagnosis of rheumatic diseases, emphasizing the increased susceptibility to CV comorbidities early in the course of these conditions.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049017224000234