Rheumatoid arthritis tied to greater risk of developing aortic stenosis

This study is published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Do rheumatoid arthritis (RA) increases the risk of developing aortic stenosis (AS)?

There is an increased ischemic cardiovascular disease risk associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but there needs to be more research on the association between RA and aortic stenosis. In the present study, researchers examined the risk of incident AS, aortic valve intervention, AS-related death, and risk factors for AS development in 73 070 patients with RA with a mean age of 63.

These were matched with 639 268 patients without RA of mean age 61 years and 16 109 composite AS outcomes over 6 223 150 person-years.

The incidence rate of AS was 3.97 per 1000 person-years in RA patients and 2.45 per 1000 person-years in the control patients.

There was an association of Rheumatoid arthritis with an increased risk of composite AS, aortic valve intervention and AS-related death.

They concluded there is an increased risk of AS, aortic valve intervention and AS-related death in RA patients.Findings of this study suggest that RA is associated with a higher risk of developing AS as well as the subsequent risks of aortic valve intervention and AS-related death.

The study’s Limitations are related to the limited generalizability of the results, the possibility of misclassification, bias residual confounding, etc.

Further reading:

Johnson TM, Mahabir CA, Yang Y, et al. Aortic Stenosis Risk in Rheumatoid Arthritis. JAMA Intern Med. Published online July 31, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.3087