Ahmed H, Saeed M A, Kokab F.
Hypertension, Diabetes and Obesity in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Their Association with Disease Activity.
Biomedica Jan ;33(3):179-86.

Background and Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease whish shows increased association with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity. The present study was designed to compare the frequency of modifiable CV risk factors (hypertension, diabetes and obesity) in patients with RA having high active disease (HDA) verses low disease activity (LDA). Methods: This cross sec-tional analytical study was conducted at Division of Rheumatology, FMH College of Medicine, Lahore, Pakistan from Sep 2014 to Feb, 2015. RA patients with high HAD and low disease activity LDA as defined per Disease Activity Score on 28 joints (DAS 28) criteria, were enrolled through purposive sampling. Information regarding patient?s demography and their CV risk factors was entered in a structured proforma. SPSS version 17 was used for statistical analysis. Results: There were total of 120 patients in HDA and 118 in LDA group. There were 31% vs. 37% hypertensive, 30% vs. 19% diabetic [OR = 1.87, CI = 1.020 ? 3.42 (p = 0.04)], 63% vs. 75% overweight and 80% vs. 84% centrally obese patients in HDA vs. LDA groups, respectively. After adjusting for confounders in a Multi-logistic regression model, association of diabetes with high disease activity was not found to be significant [OR = 0.378, CI = 0.150 +/- 0.98 (p = 0.03)]. Conclusion: This study has not shown any significant association of modifiable CV risk factors with RA disease activity. However high frequency of these risk factors in both the groups underscores the importance of aggressive screening of these risk factors in RA patients.

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