Cardiovascular risk factors’ behavior during the early stages of the disease, in Hispanic rheumatoid arthritis patients: a cohort study

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients from Latin America present distinctive characteristics relevant when assessing their cardiovascular (CV) risk. The objective was to monitor CV risk factor behavior in the early stages of the disease and to identify predictors of major CV outcomes (MACE). A recent-onset RA cohort was initiated in 2004; data from 185 patients with ≥ 1 year of follow-up were analyzed. Patients underwent prospective assessments of CV risk factors. Incident MACE were confirmed according to standardized definitions. Appropriated statics was used based on the distribution of the variables. At baseline, patients were primarily middle-aged females (87.6%), with active disease (69.7%). Most prevalent CV risk factors were C-reactive-protein > 1 mg/L (90.3%), Castelli ratio > 3 (83.8%), and low–high-density lipoprotein levels (73.5%). The number of patients with an incident CV risk factor after 1 year was higher for a Castelli ratio > 3 (23%), low–high-density lipoprotein serum cholesterol (16.3%), high total serum cholesterol (10.6%), and BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 (10%). A minority of patients met the age-range criteria for the application of ACC/AHA 2013 criteria and Reynolds Risk Score (45.8% and 34.1%, respectively). Fifteen patients were classified with high-CV risk during the first year of follow-up, according to ACC/AHA 2013 criteria. Until June 2018, the cohort underwent 1358 patient/years follow-up; six patients developed incidental MACE; high-CV risk at baseline failed to predict MACE. Recent-onset RA Hispanic patients present a distinctive pattern and first-year behavior of CV risk factors. During follow-up, few patients developed incidental MACE.