A Study of Carotid Intimomedial Thickness as a Primary Marker of Atherosclerosis in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background: This study aims to investigate the relationship between carotid intima-media thickness and clinical and metabolic correlation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Materials and methods : In this prospective observational case control study, which included 34 patients with RA having disease duration of more than 5 years were compared to 34 healthy matched controls. Results: The mean age of each cohort and control groups were 48±14.4 and 48.6±14.0 respectively with female preponderance in the study group. Both the groups were comparable for various atherogenic biochemical risk indices like body mass index (BMI), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, random blood sugar, and lipid profile. The study group had a significant elevation of CRP as compared to control group (88% vs 15%). The mean CIMT of study group was 0.86 ± 0.18 and that of control group was 0.53 ± 0.15 and which is statistically significant (p<0.0001). As the severity of disease increases according to disease activity score (DAS 28), the CIMT in study group also showed increasing trend. Conclusion : Rheumatoid Arthritis is a chronic manageable disease with various musculoskeletal morbidities and cardiovascular complications because of chronic subclinical inflammatory state. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}