WEDNESDAY, June 5, 2019 (HealthDay News) — For patients with psoriatic disease (PsD), carotid atherosclerosis, as detected by ultrasound, predicts future incident cardiovascular events (CVEs), according to a study published online June 5 in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
Curtis Sobchak, M.D., from the University of Toronto, and colleagues assessed the extent of atherosclerosis using carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) and total plaque area (TPA) on ultrasound assessment among patients with PsD. Incident CVEs that occurred following ultrasound assessment were identified; the correlation between carotid atherosclerosis and risk for incident CVE was assessed.
The researchers found that 23 of the 559 patients with PsD had incident CVE ascertained. During the study period, the rate of developing first CVE was 1.11 events per 100 patient-years. After controlling for the Framingham Risk Score, predictors for incident CVEs included TPA (hazard ratio, 3.74), mean cIMT (hazard ratio, 1.21), max cIMT (hazard ratio, 1.11), and high TPA category (hazard ratio, 3.25).
“This study suggests that the burden of carotid atherosclerosis, as detected and quantified by ultrasound, predicts future incident CVEs in patients with PsD independent of a traditional clinical cardiovascular risk prediction algorithm,” the authors write. “Combining vascular imaging data with clinical and laboratory measures of traditional cardiovascular risk factors could improve accuracy of cardiovascular risk stratification in patients with PsD and facilitate earlier initiation of appropriate treatment to reduce CVEs in this population.”
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