Heart Failure and Inflammatory Arthritis: the Relationship of Systemic Inflammation

Significant research over the past decade has provided compelling evidence that inflammatory activation is an important pathway in disease progression in both heart failure (HF) and inflammatory arthritides. The impact of these inflammatory pathways on the prognosis of HF, however, is unknown. Furthermore, the chronic low-grade inflammation observed in patients with inflammatory arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or psoriatic arthritis (PsA) has been recognized as an important risk factor for the development of ischemic heart disease and, more recently, for the development of heart failure. It is well known that patients with RA or PsA are at increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The relative contribution of systemic inflammation and therapeutic strategies aimed at decreasing inflammation has not yet uniformly decrease this risk of cardiovascular morbidity.