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Objective: In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there are limited data on risk factors for the clinical heart failure (HF) subtypes of HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). This study examined the association between inflammation and incident HF subtypes in RA. Because inflammation changes over time with disease activity, we hypothesized that the effect of inflammation may be stronger at the 5-year follow-up than at the standard 10-year follow-up from general population studies of cardiovascular risk., Methods: We studied an electronic health record (EHR)-based RA cohort with data pre- and post-RA incidence. We applied a validated approach to identify HF and extract ejection fraction to classify HFrEF and HFpEF. Follow-up started from the RA incidence date (index date) to the earliest occurrence of incident HF, death, last EHR encounter, or 10 years. Baseline inflammation was assessed using erythrocyte sedimentation rate or C-reactive protein values. Covariates included demographic characteristics, established HF risk factors, and RA-related factors. We tested the association between baseline inflammation with incident HF and its subtypes using Cox proportional hazards models., Results: We studied 9,087 patients with RA; 8.2% developed HF during 10 years of follow-up. Elevated inflammation was associated with increased risk for HF at both 5- and 10-year follow-ups (hazard ratio [HR] 1.66, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.12-2.46 and HR 1.46, 95% CI 1.13-1.90, respectively), which is also seen for HFpEF at 5 years (HR 1.72, 95% CI 1.09-2.70) and 10 years (HR 1.45, 95% CI 1.07-1.94). HFrEF was not associated with inflammation for either follow-up time., Conclusion: Elevated inflammation early in RA diagnosis was associated with HF; this association was driven by HFpEF and not HFrEF, suggesting a window of opportunity for prevention of HFpEF in RA., (© 2021 American College of Rheumatology.)

Objective: Identifying pseudogout in large data sets is difficult due to its episodic nature and a lack of billing codes specific to this acute subtype of calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) deposition disease. The objective of this study was to evaluate a novel machine learning approach for classifying pseudogout using electronic health record (EHR) data., Methods: We created an EHR data mart of patients with ≥1 relevant billing code or ≥2 natural language processing (NLP) mentions of pseudogout or chondrocalcinosis, 1991-2017. We selected 900 subjects for gold standard chart review for definite pseudogout (synovitis + synovial fluid CPP crystals), probable pseudogout (synovitis + chondrocalcinosis), or not pseudogout. We applied a topic modeling approach to identify definite/probable pseudogout. A combined algorithm included topic modeling plus manually reviewed CPP crystal results. We compared algorithm performance and cohorts identified by billing codes, the presence of CPP crystals, topic modeling, and a combined algorithm., Results: Among 900 subjects, 123 (13.7%) had pseudogout by chart review (68 definite, 55 probable). Billing codes had a sensitivity of 65% and a positive predictive value (PPV) of 22% for pseudogout. The presence of CPP crystals had a sensitivity of 29% and a PPV of 92%. Without using CPP crystal results, topic modeling had a sensitivity of 29% and a PPV of 79%. The combined algorithm yielded a sensitivity of 42% and a PPV of 81%. The combined algorithm identified 50% more patients than the presence of CPP crystals; the latter captured a portion of definite pseudogout and missed probable pseudogout., Conclusion: For pseudogout, an episodic disease with no specific billing code, combining NLP, machine learning methods, and synovial fluid laboratory results yielded an algorithm that significantly boosted the PPV compared to billing codes., (© 2020, American College of Rheumatology.)

Objective: Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) is a predictor of cardiac death in diabetes mellitus (DM) independent of traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory condition, with excess CV risk compared to the general population, in which CMD is hypothesized to play a role; however, there are limited data on CMD in RA and any association with clinical outcomes. The objective of this study was to compare the prevalence of CMD in RA to that in DM and to test the association with all-cause mortality., Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study using data from a registry of all patients undergoing stress myocardial perfusion positron emission tomography as part of routine clinical care from 2006 to 2017. The inclusion criterion was a normal perfusion scan. Patients with RA or DM were classified using previously published approaches. Coronary flow reserve (CFR) was calculated for all patients in the registry and linked with mortality data. CMD was defined as CFR <2.0., Results: We studied 73 patients with RA and 441 patients with DM. Among patients with a normal perfusion scan, the prevalence of CMD in RA was similar to that in DM (P = 0.2). CMD was associated with increased risk for all-cause mortality in RA (hazard ratio 2.4 [95% confidence interval 1.4-4.2]) as well as increased risk for cardiac-related death at rates similar to those in DM., Conclusion: These findings suggest an important role for CMD as a potential contributor to excess CV risk and mortality in RA, as previously observed in DM, as well as evidence for a mechanistic link between inflammation and cardiovascular disease., (© 2019, American College of Rheumatology.)