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Aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) is directly related to arterial stiffness. Different methods for the determination of PWV coexist. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the prognostic value of PWV in high-risk patients with suspected coronary artery disease undergoing invasive angiography and to compare 3 different methods for assessing PWV. In 1040 patients, invasive PWV (iPWV) was measured during catheter pullback. Additionally, PWV was estimated with a model incorporating age, central systolic blood pressure, and pulse waveform characteristics obtained from noninvasive measurements (estimated PWV). As a third method, PWV was calculated with a formula solely based on age and blood pressure (formula-based PWV). Survival analysis was based on continuous PWV as well as using cutoff values. After a median follow-up duration of 1565 days, 24% of the patients reached the combined end point (cardiovascular events or mortality). Cox proportional hazard ratios per 1 SD were 1.35 for iPWV, 1.37 for estimated PWV, and 1.28 for formula-based PWV ( P <0.0001 for all 3 methods) in univariate analysis, remaining statistically significant after comprehensive multivariable adjustments. In a model including a modified risk score for coronary artery disease, iPWV and estimated PWV remained borderline significant. The net reclassification improvement was significant for iPWV (0.173), formula-based PWV (0.181), and estimated PWV (0.230). All 3 methods for the determination of PWV predicted cardiovascular events and mortality in patients with suspected coronary artery disease. This indicates that iPWV as well as both noninvasive estimation methods are suitable for the assessment of arterial stiffness, bearing in mind their individual characteristics.

Autoinflammatory syndromes (AIS) are characterized by recurring events of inflammation, leading to a variety of organ manifestations and fever attacks. A subgroup of AIS is commonly referred to as hereditary periodic fever syndromes (HPFS). There is substantial evidence that autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus are strongly associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The link between AIS and cardiovascular disease is not that clear, even if the concept of continuous inflammation as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease is widely accepted. Research on the association of AIS and cardiovascular disease is increasing within the last years. In this review, we will discuss the association of several AIS with cardiovascular disease. Based on the rarity of some entities, lack of data, however, led to exclusion of some rare AIS. Especially, for Behcet's disease (BD), adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD), and Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), there is an association with a number of cardiovascular abnormalities. BD is the AIS, which is most strongly associated with manifestation in the arterial and venous system. AOSD is strongly associated with cardiac inflammation (peri-/myocarditis). FMF patients are likely to suffer from serositis. Of note, there seems to be a link between variants of AOSD as well as FMF and idiopathic recurrent acute pericarditis.

While there is a lot of evidence published on the association of cardiovascular (CV) disease and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), little is known about urinary albumin excretion (UAE)-a marker of CV risk-in this particular high-risk population. Therefore, we investigated UAE in a large cross-sectional study. We used data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), including the years 2007-2012. Primary outcome was the proportion of patients with a urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR) >30 mg/g. A total of 14,648 study participants (representing a population size of 174,663,008) with available ACR were included in the study (14,179 without RA and 469 with RA). In the RA group, the proportion of patients with an ACR >30 mg/g was 10.46 % (95 % CI 7.47-14.45 %) and in the non-RA group this proportion was 13.39 % (95 % CI 12.65-14.16 %; p = 0.09). There was a strong association between RA and DM (OR 5.84; 95 % CI 4.48-7.62). In the RA group, significantly more patients had a former CV event (OR 3.01; 95 % CI 2.28-3.97). Adjustments for DM, smoking status, former CV event, age, systolic blood pressure, and gender did not substantially alter the association between RA and ACR >30 mg/g (OR 0.82; 95 % CI 0.51-1.33). We did not find evidence for a difference in UAE in patients with or without RA, despite the fact that RA was associated with DM and, in addition, RA patients more often had a previous CV event. These findings may support the assumption that despite an increased CV risk, UAE does not play a major role in RA patients.

Objective: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at significantly higher risk of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality compared with the general population. Traditional CV risk factors cannot explain the total excess of CV morbidity and mortality in RA patients. At present, it is not clear whether treatment with statins might be of benefit in RA patients. The aim of the present systematic literature review is to summarize the published evidence concerning treatment with statins and its impact on CV events in RA patients., Methods: A systematic literature review of studies on RA and statins was carried out in the database PubMed. Search terms were 'simvastatin OR atorvastatin OR fluvastatin OR lovastatin OR pravastatin OR rosuvastatin OR statin AND arthritis'. Papers were included in this review when the reported outcome was on CV events in RA patients. After exclusion of the studies not fulfilling our inclusion criteria four studies were finally analyzed. The total number of RA patients included in these studies was 4896., Results: Statins were associated with reduced CV events and mortality in RA in primary prevention but not in secondary prevention. In secondary prevention after myocardial infarction (MI) there was no statistically significant difference between RA or non-RA patients either receiving atorvastatin 80 mg or simvastatin 20-40 mg daily. Treatment with atorvastatin 80 mg led to a reduction in overall risk of CV disease in both patients with and without inflammatory joint disease compared to patients receiving the conventional/low-dose statin treatment. Statin discontinuation in RA patients was associated with an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction or CV mortality. Myalgia, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and nausea may be more frequent in RA patients than in controls., Conclusion: The published evidence shows that in RA patients statin treatment appears to reduce CV risk in primary prevention and that statin discontinuation is associated with an increased risk for CV events. However, the significance of statin treatment in RA patients still remains unclear as only very little evidence has been published. Whether all RA patients would benefit from treatment with statins still needs to be investigated., (© 2014 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.)