Arthritis And Lupus May Raise Heart Attack Risk

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) face an increased risk of first-time heart attack, new research suggests.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) face an increased risk of first-time heart attack, new research suggests. Previous studies have linked rheumatoid arthritis and SLE with higher rates of cardiovascular disease, the authors explain, and the Nurses’ Health Study recently reported a doubling of heart attack risk in women with rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Christoph R. Meier from the University Hospital of Basel in Switzerland and colleagues used the General Practice Research Database, encompassing more than 3 million UK residents, to explore the risk of developing a first-time heart attack associated with rheumatoid arthritis or SLE in men and women younger than 90 years of age. The researchers’ findings are reported in The American Journal of Cardiology. Some 8,688 patients with a first heart attack were compared with 33,329 similar subjects without this history. After adjusting for factors that could have affected the results, SLE raised the risk of heart attack by 167 percent and rheumatoid arthritis raised the risk by 47 percent, the authors report. In rheumatoid arthritis, the risk of heart attack was higher among women than among men, the report indicates, whereas the reverse was true for patients with SLE. The risk of first-time heart attack was especially high among rheumatoid arthritis or SLE patients who also had high cholesterol levels, the researchers note. Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus are both inflammatory diseases. “Chronic inflammation seems to be directly linked to the risk of (heart attack),” Meier told Reuters Health. To reduce their risk of heart attack, people with chronic inflammatory diseases may benefit from drugs that reduce inflammation, especially aspirin, he added. (Source: American Journal of Cardiology, February 2004: Med Line Plus: Reuters Health: Will Boggs, MD: February 2004)