Rheumatoid Arthritis Linked to Increased Risk of ACS Recurrence, Mortality

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with an increased risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) recurrence and death following ACS, according to the results of a recent study.

While previous research has indicated that patients with RA experience worse short-term outcomes following ACS than the general population, long-term post-ACS outcomes are less well understood.
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For their study, the researchers examined data from 1135 patients with RA and 3184 without RA with incident ACS from 2007 to 2010.

Overall, the risk of ACS recurrence and mortality was increased in patients with RA at 1 year and throughout the complete follow-up (mean follow-up 2 years). These associations remained in subgroup analyses of participants with prescription patterns indicating adequate initiation and persistence to secondary preventive treatments.

“Patients with RA suffer from an increased risk of ACS recurrence and of death following ACS compared with general population, which in the present study could not readily be explained by differences in usage of secondary preventive drugs.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Mantel A, Holmqvist M, Jernberg T, et al. Long-term outcomes and secondary prevention after acute coronary events in patients with rheumatoid arthritis [published online August 20, 2017]. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2017-211608.