Objectives Patients affected by Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis (EGPA) display an increased risk of atherothrombotic events compared with the general population. An increased frequency of subclinical markers of atherosclerosis has been observed in other anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV), but no specific study focused on EGPA. We therefore evaluated subclinical atherosclerosis in EGPA patients and in a control population. Methods Forty EGPA patients and 80 controls matched by age, sex and traditional cardiovascular risk factors underwent sonographic assessment of common carotid artery (CCA) intima-media thickness (IMT). The presence of plaques of the CCA was also investigated. The correlation between CCA-IMT and clinical and laboratory features was also assessed. Results Median CCA-IMT was significantly higher in EGPA patients compared with controls (p= 0.002). Also, the proportion of subjects with increased CCA-IMT and with presence of plaques was significantly higher among EGPA patients (p< 0.001 for both). Moreover, within the EGPA cohort, CCA-IMT tended to increase with disease duration (p= 0.034) and corticosteroid cumulative dose (p= 0.004). No significant associations were found between CCA-IMT, ANCA status, other clinical features and therapeutic regimens. Notably, the prevalence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors was comparable in patients with vs without an increased CCA-IMT. Conclusion Ultrasound markers of subclinical atherosclerosis are increased in EGPA patients as compared with controls, independently of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.

中文翻译：

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嗜酸性肉芽肿伴多血管炎 (EGPA) 中亚临床动脉粥样硬化的证据

目标 与一般人群相比，患有嗜酸性肉芽肿性多血管炎 (EGPA) 的患者发生动脉粥样硬化血栓事件的风险增加。在其他抗中性粒细胞胞质抗体 (ANCA) 相关血管炎 (AAV) 中观察到动脉粥样硬化亚临床标志物的频率增加，但没有专门针对 EGPA 的研究。因此，我们评估了 EGPA 患者和对照人群的亚临床动脉粥样硬化。方法 40 名 EGPA 患者和 80 名对照者按年龄、性别和传统心血管危险因素进行匹配，对颈总动脉 (CCA) 内膜中层厚度 (IMT) 进行超声评估。还研究了 CCA 斑块的存在。还评估了 CCA-IMT 与临床和实验室特征之间的相关性。结果 EGPA 患者的中位 CCA-IMT 显着高于对照组 (p= 0.002)。此外，在 EGPA 患者中，具有增加的 CCA-IMT 和存在斑块的受试者的比例显着更高（两者 p ＜ 0.001）。此外，在 EGPA 队列中，CCA-IMT 倾向于随着疾病持续时间 (p= 0.034) 和皮质类固醇累积剂量 (p= 0.004) 而增加。在 CCA-IMT、ANCA 状态、其他临床特征和治疗方案之间未发现显着关联。值得注意的是，传统心血管危险因素的患病率在 CCA-IMT 增加与未增加的患者中相当。结论 与对照组相比，EGPA 患者亚临床动脉粥样硬化的超声标志物增加，独立于传统的心血管危险因素。