Gaps in addressing cardiovascular risk in rheumatoid arthritis : assessing performance using cardiovascular quality indicators

Objectives: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major comorbidity for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The study sought to determine performance on 11 recently developed CVD Quality Indicators (QIs) for RA in clinical practice. Methods: Medical charts for RA patients (early disease or biologic-treated) followed at one centre were retrospectively reviewed. A systematic assessment of adherence to 11 QIs over a two-year period was completed. Performance on the QIs is reported as a percentage pass rate. Results: 170 charts were reviewed (107 early disease and 63 biologictreated). The most frequent CVD risk factors present at diagnosis (early disease) and biologic start (biologictreated) included hypertension (26%), obesity (25%), smoking (21%) and dyslipidemia (15%). Performance on the CVD QIs was highly variable. Areas of low performance (