Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs May Lower Heart Attack, Stroke Risk

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Thursday, March 6, 2008; 5:00 PM

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THURSDAY, March 6 (HealthDay News) -- People taking medications for rheumatoid arthritis may also be reducing their risk of heart attack and stroke, a new study suggests.

People with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which causes pain, swelling, stiffness and loss of function in the joints, face a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, because it can lead to hardening of the arteries. Heart attack and stroke can occur 10 years earlier than in people without the condition, the researchers said.

By taking medications that reduce the inflammation caused by rheumatoid arthritis, the risk of heart attack and stroke may be significantly reduced, the study authors said.

"Our study demonstrated that the time of exposure both to disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and biological agents is associated with a reduction of the risk of cardiovascular events," said lead researcher Dr. Antonio Naranjo, of the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in Spain.

Those drugs include common RA medications such as methotrexate, sulfasalazine, glucocorticoids, leflunomide and biological agents such as TNF-alpha blockers, the researchers noted.

Naranjo said doctors know that by controlling the chronic inflammation caused by rheumatoid arthritis, it's possible to reduce cardiovascular risk. "The practical consequence of our work is that in patients with RA, especially in the most severe cases, both the classic cardiovascular risk factors and the inflammatory activity of the disease need to be controlled," he said.

For the study, Naranjo's team analyzed data on 4,363 patients who took part in the Quantitative Patient Questionnaires in Standard Monitoring of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis study. The researchers found that taking drugs such as methotrexate lowered the risk of a heart attack or stroke. For example, RA patients taking methotrexate for one year can reduce their risk of heart attack by 18 percent and stroke by 11 percent, the investigators reported.

"Methotrexate, other disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and biologic agents could reduce the extra risk of myocardial infarction [heart attack] and stroke that patients with rheumatoid arthritis have by controlling inflammation," Naranjo said.