Background— Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with accelerated atherosclerosis and increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Striking similarities exist in the inflammatory and immunologic response in RA and atherosclerosis. Indeed, adhesion molecules and cytokines, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in particular, are key mediators of joint inflammation and of vascular dysfunction and progression of atherosclerotic vascular disease. Hence, the aim of the present study was to assess the effect of chronic antiinflammatory treatment with the anti-TNF-α antibody infliximab on disease activity and endothelial function in patients with active RA. Methods and Results— Eleven RA patients (mean age 46±5 years; disease duration 9±2 years) with high disease activity despite treatment with stable doses of methotrexate (≤25 mg/wk) and prednisone (≤10 mg/d) were investigated. Clinical status and endothelium-dependent and -independent vasodilation of the brachial artery as assessed by high-resolution ultrasound were measured before and after 12 weeks of infliximab therapy. Flow-mediated vasodilation improved from 3.2±0.4% to 4.1±0.5% ( P =0.018), whereas endothelium-independent vasodilation with nitroglycerin and baseline diameter remained unchanged (13.6±1.2% versus 12.8±1.4%, P =0.98, and 3.74±0.15 versus 3.66±0.11 mm, P =0.54, respectively). Disease activity score (DAS28) was significantly reduced, from 5.6±0.3 to 3.5±0.6 ( P =0.002). Erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein were lowered from 34±7 to 19±5 mm/h ( P =0.04) and from 38±11 to 15±10 mg/L ( P =0.08), respectively. Conclusions— This is the first study to show that anti-TNF-α treatment improves endothelial function in RA. The data suggest that in RA, endothelial dysfunction is part of the disease process and is mediated by TNF-α.

Background-Intravascular ultrasound of drug-eluting stent (DES) thrombosis (ST) reveals a high incidence of incomplete stent apposition (ISA) and vessel remodeling. Autopsy specimens of DES ST show delayed healing and hypersensitivity reactions. The present study sought to correlate histopathology of thrombus aspirates with intravascular ultrasound findings in patients with very late DES ST. Methods and Results-The study population consisted of 54 patients (28 patients with very late DES ST and 26 controls).Of 28 patients with very late DES ST, 10 patients (1020Ϯ283 days after implantation) with 11 ST segments (5 sirolimus-eluting stents, 5 paclitaxel-eluting stents, 1 zotarolimus-eluting stent) underwent both thrombus aspiration and intravascular ultrasound investigation. ISA was present in 73% of cases with an ISA cross-sectional area of 6.2Ϯ2.4 mm 2 and evidence of vessel remodeling (index, 1.6Ϯ0.3). Histopathological analysis showed pieces of fresh thrombus with inflammatory cell infiltrates (DES, 263Ϯ149 white blood cells per high-power field) and eosinophils (DES, 20Ϯ24 eosinophils per high-power field; sirolimus-eluting stents, 34Ϯ28; paclitaxel-eluting stents, 6Ϯ6; P for sirolimus-eluting stents versus paclitaxel-eluting stentsϭ0.09). The mean number of eosinophils per high-power field was higher in specimens from very late DES ST (20Ϯ24) than in those from spontaneous acute myocardial infarction (7Ϯ10), early bare-metal stent ST (1Ϯ1), early DES ST (1Ϯ2), and late bare-metal stent ST (2Ϯ3; P from ANOVAϭ0.038). Eosinophil count correlated with ISA cross-sectional area, with an average increase of 5.4 eosinophils per high-power field per 1-mm 2 increase in ISA cross-sectional area. Conclusions-Very