Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with increased mortality and morbidity due to the higher cardiovascular risk in these patients. Traditional risk factors are not the only answer for the accelerated atherosclerosis. In a long-term prospective study, we investigated the relationship between asymptomatic atherosclerosis and traditional risk factors and inflammatory markers in patients with RA and matched healthy controls. We studied the laboratory test results, the concentrations of inflammatory mediators, matrix metalloproteases (MMP), and inflammation markers in the total of 70 (60 at follow-up) premenopausal healthy women with RA and 40 (34 at follow-up) matched controls. We used the B-mode ultrasound imaging of carotid arteries for the detection of asymptomatic atherosclerosis. Correlation with different factors was evaluated. Statistically significant higher values of inflammatory markers such as selective adhesion molecules ICAM and VCAM, interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), and MMP-3 in patients group were found in the follow-up study. More plaques were found in the patients group (42.4% vs. 12.9%; p=0.005), as compared with the controls group. The patients had also higher values of cIMT (p=0.001). Using bivariate regression analysis only VCAM was found as a prognostic factor for plaque occurrence (r=0.341, p=0.016), but not for cIMT (r=-0.130, p=0.327) in premenopausal female patients with RA after the follow-up. Therefore, asymptomatic atherosclerosis is accelerated in premenopausal women with RA. The results of our follow-up study showed the association between inflammation and accelerated atherosclerosis. Furthermore, VCAM was found to have a statistically significant correlation with plaque occurrence in these patients.

中文翻译：

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患有类风湿关节炎的绝经前妇女的动脉粥样硬化加速 - 15 年随访。

类风湿性关节炎（RA）是一种慢性炎症性疾病，由于这些患者的心血管风险较高，因此与死亡率和发病率增加相关。传统的危险因素并不是加速动脉粥样硬化的唯一答案。在一项长期前瞻性研究中，我们调查了 RA 患者和匹配的健康对照者无症状动脉粥样硬化与传统危险因素和炎症标志物之间的关系。我们研究了总共 70 名（随访时 60 名）患有 RA 的绝经前健康女性和 40 名（随访时 34 名）匹配对照者的实验室测试结果、炎症介质、基质金属蛋白酶 (MMP) 和炎症标志物的浓度。 。我们使用颈动脉 B 型超声成像来检测无症状的动脉粥样硬化。评估了与不同因素的相关性。随访研究发现患者组选择性粘附分子ICAM和VCAM、白细胞介素6（IL-6）、肿瘤坏死因子α（TNF-α）、MMP-3等炎症标志物数值显着升高。与对照组相比，患者组发现了更多的斑块（42.4% vs. 12.9%；p=0.005）。患者的 cIMT 值也较高 (p=0.001)。使用双变量回归分析，在绝经前女性 RA 患者随访后，仅发现 VCAM 作为斑块发生的预后因素 (r=0.341，p=0.016)，而不是 cIMT (r=-0.130，p=0.327) 。因此，绝经前患有 RA 的女性会加速无症状动脉粥样硬化。我们的后续研究结果表明炎症与加速动脉粥样硬化之间存在关联。此外，发现 VCAM 与这些患者的斑块发生具有统计学上显着的相关性。