Factores de riesgo asociados con diferentes etapas de la aterosclerosis en pacientes colombianos con artritis reumatoide

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with an increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Since atherosclerosis development is a gradual process of damage inside the artery wall, and the phenotype–genotype correlation of complex diseases may vary depending on ethnicity, we sought to investigate the influence of clinical features, routine inflammatory markers, and the genetic component of RA on different stages of atherosclerosis in northwestern Colombian patients with RA. Methods A group of 140 patients with RA were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent a noninvasive evaluation of endothelial function by flow-mediated vasodilation (FMV) and an assessment of carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) by high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography. The patients were classified into 3 categories: endothelial dysfunction (FMV 1.30 mm). The risk of being in each category was assessed by investigating traditional and nontraditional cardiovascular risk factors. For each stage of atherosclerosis development, we searched for nontraditional risk factors that were significantly associated with the stage after adjusting for traditional risk factors and current age