Increased incidence of and impaired prognosis after acute myocardial infarction among patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis

• Published in: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
• Main Authors: Södergren, Anna, Stegmayr, Birgitta, Lundberg, Vivan, Öhman, Marie-Louise, Wållberg-Jonsson, Solveig
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2006
• Subjects: Concise Report; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://ard.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/ard.2006.052456v1; https://doi.org/10.1136/ard.2006.052456

Objective: To examine the incidence and outcome of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared with the general population, and to examine whether care and treatment of an AMI differs between patients and controls. Methods: The northern Sweden MONICA register was used to compare the incidence of AMI in a cohort of RA patients with the general population. Thirty-five RA patients who had also suffered an AMI were identified. For each patient with RA, three controls with a history of AMI but without RA were randomly collected from the same register, and matched for age, sex and year of the AMI for evaluation of case fatality (CF) and potential differences in AMI treatment. Results: SIR for AMI was 2.9 in RA patients compared with the general population (p<0.05). During the first 10 years following an AMI, RA patients had a higher overall CF compared with controls (HR=1.67, 95%CI [1.02, 2.71]). Survival time was decreased in the RA group compared with controls despite the same care and treatment. Conclusion: Both the incidence of, and the CF after an AMI was higher among RA patients compared with the general population. The results emphasize the necessity of optimising the preventive, diagnostic and caring strategies for AMI in RA.