Evaluation of the pulse wave velocity in African rheumatoid arthritis subjects

Abstract

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic disease with often fatal vascular events. In addition to traditional cardiovascular risk factors, disease-specific elements contribute to this cardiovascular mortality. The aim of this study was to assess arterial stiffness in rheumatoid arthritis and to determine the factors involved.Methods: We have recruited the black African patients followed in rheumatology and had rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis. Only patients between 18 and 60 years and meeting the American College of Rheumatology criteria were included. All controls were healthy. We evaluated the propagation velocity of the pulse wave finger-toe (PWVft) measured by the pOpmètre®.Results: Present study shows that the PWVft was significantly elevated in over half of patients (55.10%). Besides, the mean patients PWVft was significantly higher than that of the control (respectively 9.40±0.51 and 7.22±0.33 p=0.001). In the patients, no factor was significantly involved in the arterial stiffness, but cons in the control group, the PWVft was significantly correlated with age (p=0.023 and r=0.55).Conclusions: Rheumatoid arthritis patients had higher PWVft compared to controls. Due to the importance of its cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, arthritis requires a regular monitoring element as arterial stiffness, which is currently a major vascular parameter monitoring.

Increased Risk of Arterial Stiffness in Rhumatoid Arthritis Patients in a Sub-Saharan African Setting

“…As concerns CfPWV, RA patients had a higher mean value of CfPWV (1.40 m/s), as compared to the healthy subjects. This result is similar to findings by other studies, such as Touré et al, who showed similar findings [18]. This might be due to the chronic inflammatory state in RA patients (also indicated my elevated CRP in our population), which impairs endothelial function leading to increase progression of arteriosclerosis and thus arterial stiffness.…”