Muhammad Salman Mushtaq*, Muhammad Arif, Babar Salim, Omer Daraz, Saba Samreen, Haris Gul
Objective: To compare 10 year cardiovascular risk in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and control group using different cardiovascular risk scores and to assess the usefulness of these scores in rheumatoid arthritis
Methods: Case control study conducted at FFH and HFH from 1st September 2019 to 29th February 2020. Patients 40 to 80 years of age were selected. 196 patients all females were included, 98 patients diagnosed RA according to American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2010 criteria (RA group). 98 patients which are non RA matched healthy controls (control group). Blood was taken for lipid profile, erythrocyte Sedimentation rate, creatinine levels, rheumatoid factor and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptides. Weight, height, Glomerular filtration rate were measured. Framingham risk score, Systemic Coronary risk evaluation, QRISK2, and American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association was calculated for both groups using online calculator.
Results: Mean age of RA patients was 52.87±10.42. Most common comorbidity in RA patients was found to be hypertension 82(42%), 100(48.78%) were overweight with mean BMI of 25.35±4.96. RA group have mean high FRS, QRISK2, ACC/AHA and SCORE i.e 14.84±7.36, 17.89±17.98, 10.00±13.94 and 2.31±2.40 than control group.QRISK2 scores identify more high risk patients than other scores
Conclusion: Large proportion of RA patients had high risk of cardiovascular disease as compared to healthy controls on the basis of FRS, QRISK2, ACC/AHA and SCORE. QRISK2 scores is better predictor of categorizing cardiovascular risk as high risk than other scores used in the study.