Drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis may have cardiovascular benefits

doi:10.1136/bmj.39517.379977.DB

BMJ 2008;336:580 (15 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39517.379977.DB

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Drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis may have cardiovascular benefits

Janice Hopkins Tanne

¹ New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

An international study of 4363 patients with rheumatoid arthritishas shown that use of almost all disease modifying agents reducescardiovascular events (Arthritis Research and Therapy 2008;10:R30;doi: 10.1186/ar2383).

The study, which looked at disease modifying agents includingmethotrexate, leflunomide, glucocorticoids, sulfasalazine, andtumour necrosis factor ${alpha}$ blockers showed that they reduced thesepatients’ increased risk of cardiovascular events, perhapsthrough an anti-inflammatory effect.

The use of malaria drugs and intramuscular gold did not changethe risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study, called QUESTRA (questionnaires in standard monitoringof patients with rheumatoid arthritis programme), was led byAntonio Naranjo of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,Spain. It followed patients with rheumatoid arthritis at 48sites in 15 countries—Argentina, Denmark, Finland, France,Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Spain,Sweden, Turkey the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Compared with the general population, patients with rheumatoid. . . [Full text of this article]

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