Cardiac involvement in rheumatoid arthritis: A cross-sectional study in Iran.
Indian Heart J
; 68(3): 332-5, 2016.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27316486
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Cardiovascular disease is one of the extra-articular manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that is the most common cause of death in these patients. So we decided to evaluate RA patients in terms of history, clinical examination, electrocardiography, and echocardiography to determine the prevalence of types of cardiac involvements in these patients.METHODS:
100 consecutive patients, diagnosed with RA, referred to rheumatology clinic in Razi referral hospital of Rasht, Iran, were enrolled. Complete physical examination of the joints was performed in all subjects to evaluate the remission of disease. Signs and symptoms of possible cardiac involvement were evaluated in patients by taking history and erythrocyte sedimentation rate test; moreover, an expert cardiologist performed complete cardiovascular examination in all participants. Then, all subjects were referred to a same center for electrocardiography and echocardiography. Finally, analysis was performed by using chi-square and t tests.RESULTS:
23 (23%) males and 77 (77%) females were included in this study. Tachycardia, dyspnea, and chest pain were the most cardiac signs and symptoms of patients. 32 subjects had abnormal findings in electrocardiogram. The most abnormal findings in patient's ECG were ST interval and T wave changes. Abnormal findings in echocardiography were observed in 74 participants. Pericardial involvement and ventricular dysfunction were the most abnormal findings in patient's echocardiography. We found a significant relation between duration of RA disease and abnormal echocardiography findings (p<0.05).CONCLUSION:
This study indicates the high prevalence of cardiac involvement in RA patients.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Arthritis, Rheumatoid
/
Echocardiography
/
Electrocardiography
/
Heart Diseases
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
Indian Heart J
Year:
2016
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Iran