Rheumatism: danger to the heart
Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.
More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.MunichSwollen and inflamed joints make life difficult for rheumatism patients. But not only the musculoskeletal system is affected by the chronic inflammation - the heart is also at risk.
"Around a quarter of rheumatoid arthritis patients could have a heart attack even though they had no warning signs," reports Dr. Adriana Puente Cardiologist at the National Medical Center in Mexico. Most rheumatism patients are not aware of this.
Puente and her team examined 91 rheumatoid arthritis patients in a study. Using what is known as Gated Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), the researchers assessed whether the test subjects had suffered from a heart attack or insufficient blood flow (ischemia). This method makes it possible to see how the blood supply to the heart is doing. In addition, they determined the markers of inflammation in the blood, the activity of rheumatoid arthritis and possible risk factors of the participants for heart problems.
Increased risk regardless of whether you are a smoker or not
The analysis of the Gated SPECT showed that around a quarter of the test subjects had a high probability of suffering from ischemia or a heart attack. The bottlenecks in the blood supply to the heart occurred quite independently of the risk factors examined. In other words, the joint disease alone increases the likelihood of a heart attack - and its consequences. "Patients with rheumatoid arthritis have an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease," explains Puente.
The researcher suspects that the ischemias and infarcts may be triggered by the constant inflammation throughout the body, as this accelerates vascular calcification, the main cause of a heart attack.
Better education and treatment in the future
"The results underline the importance of diagnostic tests in patients with rheumatoid arthritis to check whether they have cardiovascular disease - even if there are no symptoms or special risk factors," says Puente Ischemia, or a heart attack, supplements them.
In general, the researcher hopes that patients with rheumatoid arthritis will be better informed in the future. They should know that their heart can cause problems and that they need medication to minimize the inflammatory process and thus the calcification of the blood vessels.
Overzealous immune system
Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common inflammatory joint disease in the world. About one percent of the German population is affected - two thirds of them are women. This disease can be traced back to a malfunction of the own immune system - it attacks the body's own structures, the joints. Inflammation and severe pain - usually in bursts - are the result. If this is not treated in time, the cartilage, bones and connective tissue in the area of the joints can be destroyed.
Source: Press release of the European Society of Cardiology from May 4th, 2015
Tags: prevention first aid Diagnosis
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