Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events Are More Common in Patients with Chronic Inflammatory Diseases

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and severe psoriasis have been linked to excess risk for cardiovascular disease. The data on whether psoriatic arthritis also confers risk are not as robust. Researchers performed a cohort study using a large U.K. primary care database. Adult patients with psoriatic arthritis (8706 patients), psoriasis (138,424), or RA (41,752) were matched with 82,258 controls who did not have any of these conditions or use disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs).

After adjustment for traditional risk factors, significant excess risk for major adverse cardiovascular events was found in psoriatic arthritis patients who were not prescribed DMARDs (hazard ratio, 1.24), in patients with severe psoriasis (defined as psoriasis pat…