Evidence suggests that greater than 1.5 increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is related to an accelerated burden of subclinical atherosclerosis that develops before the diagnosis of RA, according to a recent review. Inflammatory autoimmune rheumatic diseases have a lifetime risk of onset of 1 in 12 for women and 1 in 20 for men. This review focuses on the most common, RA, which occurs 2 to 3 times more often in women than men. Researchers found:

• Adults with RA have ~1.5 times higher risk of CVD even with no traditional CVD risk factors, and incidence rates increase substantially with number of CVD risk factors.
• Dyslipidemia in RA is better quantified by lipoproteins and apolipoproteins than cholesterol levels.
• Some of the 2-fold higher risk of heart failure and total mortality in RA may be due to myocardial disease caused by inflammation.