Rheumatoid Arthritis Associated with More Severe Acute Coronary Syndromes and Outcomes Save

Acute coronary syndromes (ACSs), myocardial infarctions and heart failure appear to be a hazardous consequence to systemic and articular inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis. But less is known about the clinical characteristics and the association with short-term cardiac outcome of such ACS. Investigators from Sweden compared the clinical presentation of incident ACS and short-term mortality in 1135 patients with RA and 3184 matched general population controls.

Rheumatoid arthritis subjects more frequently presented with sudden cardiac death, ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions, had higher levels of troponin and higher frequencies of in-hospital complications compared with the general population comparators.The short-term mortality was higher among RA-associated ACS (after adjustment for comorbidities, demographics, and educational level) with a 7-day HR = 1.50 [95% CI 1.19–1.90] and 30-day HR = 1.43 [95% CI 1.18–1.72], and for ACS type (7-day HR = 1.44 [95% CI 1.14–1.82]; 30-day HR = 1.36 [95% CI 1.13–1.64]).

RA patients suffer more severe ACSs compared with the general population and also have poorer outcomes after the events.