The Impact of Psoriatic Arthritis on Cardiovascular Risk Factors

April 18, 2018

Which came first: the psoriatic arthritis or the cardiovascular risk factors?

Reference1. Gulati AM, Salvesen Ã, Thomsen RS, et al. Change in cardiovascular risk factors in patients who develop psoriatic arthritis: longitudinal data from the Nord-TrÃ¸ndelag Health Study (HUNT). RMD Open. 2018;4:e000630. doi:10.1136/rmdopen-2017-000630.

Results from a large 10-year Norwegian population-based study that compared patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) with healthy controls found no increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) following the diagnosis of PsA.¹

Click through the slides to find the details of the study and the take-home messages for clinicians.

(Image: ©Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock.com)

Other studies have found an increase in myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral vascular disease in patients with PsA.

Gulati and colleagues recently presented their findings in Rheumatic & Musculoskeletal Diseases Open.

BMI, body mass index.

^a Only tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors were available at the time for disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug use (DMARD) therapy.

^b Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) level were available only from subjects in the HUNT3 study.

Patients with PsA when compared with controls had higher BMI (27.2 vs 25.9 kg/m2, P < .001) and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (1.32 vs 1.40 mmol/L, P < .03), and more of those with PsA were smokers (41.1% vs 28.5%, P < .01).

Patients with PsA gained less weight than the control group (2.1 vs 3.9 kg), with a significant difference in mean change of −1.8 kg (95% confidence interval [CI]: −3.9 to −0.5, P < .01).

Those with PsA had a greater reduction in total cholesterol values than the controls, with a difference in mean change between the groups of −0.22 mmol/L (P = .04).

More patients with PsA started smoking during the decade-long study compared with controls (8.5% vs 3.1%, P = .03).

The researchers did not adjust for clinical factors such as DMARD and corticosteroid use, disease duration, previous skin psoriasis, or disease activity.