Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học General Psychiatry cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài: Inflammation, carotid intima-media thickness and atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis. | Available online http content 10 1 102 Editorial Inflammation carotid intima-media thickness and atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis Jet JCS Veldhuijzen van Zanten1 2 and George D Kitas1 2 School of Sport and Exercise Sciences University of Birmingham Birmingham B15 2TT UK 2Department of Rheumatology Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust Pensnett Road Dudley West Midlands DY1 2HQ UK Corresponding author Professor George D Kitas Published 16 January 2008 Arthritis Research Therapy 2008 10 102 doi ar2345 This article is online at http content 10 1 102 2008 BioMed Central Ltd See related research by Hannawi et al. http content 9 6 R116 Abstract Carotid intima-media thickness cIMT reflects early atherosclerosis and predicts cardiovascular events in the general population. An increased cIMT is present in patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared with control individuals from the early stages of the disease and is thought to indicate accelerated atherosclerosis but direct evidence is not available. Whether cIMT is susceptible to rapid and potentially reversible change depending on the intensity of inflammation in states of high-grade systemic inflammation such as rheumatoid arthritis remains unknown. If this is the case an increased cIMT in such disease states may not reflect structural vessel wall damage and may not be a good predictor of future cardiovascular events in these particular populations. Prospective long-term longitudinal studies are needed to address these questions. Carotid intima-media thickness cIMT was recently reported by Hannawi and colleagues to be higher in rheumatoid arthritis RA patients with recent disease onset compared with age-matched and sex-matched control individuals 1 . The noninvasive measurement of cIMT is thought to reflect structural vessel changes at relatively advanced but still subclinical stages of atherosclerosis. cIMT is a strong
