echocardiography rheumatoid arthritis

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory rheumatic diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and systemic sclerosis (SSc), can cause cardiovascular complications in many cases. This study aimed to compare the ventricular and atrial functions of the heart between rheumatic patients and healthy controls using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). RESULTS: The study was performed between 64 patients with mentioned rheumatic diseases and 64 age- and sex-matched healthy controls who all underwent detailed history-taking and TTE...

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a clinical condition characterized by increased pulmonary arterial pressure arising from a heterogeneous range of diseases that has a deteriorating effect on the quality of life and may cause early mortality if left untreated. Connective tissue disorders (CTD)-associated PH is the second most common cause of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), after the idiopathic form, categorized as group I. Systemic scleroderma (SSc) accounts for 75% of CTD-associated PH cases. Although SSc ranks first place for CTD-associated PH, SSc is followed by systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD), having a lesser frequency of PH occurrence, while it occurs as a rare complication in cases with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and inflammatory myositis...

Native heart valve thrombosis (NHVT) is a rare valvular pathology, usually associated with prothrombotic state or disturbed intracardiac blood flow related to structural valve abnormalities. While different venous and arterial thromboembolic complications of COVID-19 have been widely described, so far NHVT has not been reported in the context of the disease. The authors describe 4 cases of NHVT associated with COVID-19, revealed on aortic, mitral (2 patients) and tricuspid valve. In a 29-yearold male with mild pneumonia, large thrombus developed on bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), which resulted in fatal brain emboli...

Generalised arterial calcification of infancy (GACI) is an ultra-rare life-threatening genetic disorder. Arterial calcification is identified during foetal ultrasound scan (USS) as increased cardiac and/or vascular echogenicity. Inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi ) is the main inhibitor of arterial calcification. Pathogenic variants in ENPP1, ABCC6 and NT5E causing low PPi lead to ectopic calcifications. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an acquired condition that can also lead to arterial calcification in adults. We present an extremely rare case of a transient GACI-like condition identified during foetal echocardiogram of an infant born to a mother diagnosed with RA, which spontaneously resolved postnatally...

A 68-year-old man presented in late summer 2021 with fever, myalgias, generalized weakness, dizziness, and headache. Past medical history included rheumatoid arthritis treated with infliximab, congestive heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, and recent travel to Alaska. He was febrile, tachycardic, and tachypneic on admission. Physical exam and admission labs were overall unremarkable. On day 4, he complained of shortness of breath and central chest discomfort. Troponin was mildly elevated, electrocardiogram was unremarkable, and echocardiogram showed new global wall motion abnormalities and ejection fraction of 40%, which was 55% months prior...

OBJECTIVES: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disorder primarily involving the peripheral joints. Systemic involvement can occur, including myocardial dysfunction. Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) is a novel diagnostic study which is recently being used to detect subclinical cardiac dysfunction. Global longitudinal strain (GLS) by STE is more sensitive than standard echocardiographic parameters to detect occult cardiac dysfunction. METHODS: A systematic search of PUBMED, EMBASE, Cochrane, and Google Scholar databases was performed to identify studies comparing the STE parameters between RA and non-RA patients...

BACKGROUND: Diastolic dysfunction (DD) is more prevalent in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to the general population. However, its evolution over time and its significant clinical predictors remain uncharacterized. We report on baseline and prospective changes in diastolic function and its associated RA and cardiovascular (CV) predictors. METHODS: In this study, 158 RA patients without clinical CV disease (CVD) were enrolled and followed up at 4 to 6 years, undergoing baseline and follow-up echocardiography to assess for DD, as well as extensive characterization of RA disease activity and CV risk factors...

BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) represents the most frequent form of inflammatory arthritis, affecting approximately 1% of the population worldwide. The introduction of novel therapeutic strategies targeting proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and interleukin-6) revolutionized the treatment of RA. This kind of treatment, although effective in a substantial portion of patients, may potentially cause many side effects. Among them, cardiovascular safety is one of the main concerns. OBJECTIVES: In the present study, we investigated the impact of treatment with anti-TNF-α and anti-IL-6 agents on heart function and levels of heart function biomarkers...

Spleen plays an important role in promoting inflammation in myocardial infarction (MI)-induced heart failure (HF). Spleen may have the temporal and/or permanent changes to accommodate the neurohumoral compensatory responses in the context of HF. However, the mechanisms underlying the immune cell deployment from the spleen in HF remain elusive. To gain unbiased insights into how splenic cells are transcriptionally adapted to the neurohumoral alterations in HF, we performed RNA-seq analysis on spleen-derived leukocytes from HF rats or sham-operated (Sham) rats...

UNLABELLED: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic disease of unknown ethology characterised by persistent inflammatory synovitis usually affecting peripheral joints with symmetric distribution. Most common cause of death in RA is cardiovascular disease and pericarditis is the most common form of cardiac involvement. Valvular disorders, coronary vasculitis and ventricular diastolic dysfunction can be seen. The aim and objective was to study the prevalence of cardiovascular involvement in the patients of RA and correlate the cardiovascular involvement with duration and severity of disease...

For systemic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis, systemic vasculitis, myopathies, and mixed connective tissue diseases, cardiac disease is a major contributing factor for morbidity and mortality. The cardiovascular manifestations are the result of various pathophysiological components, which complicate management. Furthermore, the signs and symptoms can be subtle and missed due to the complex nature of the underlying condition. As a result, various imaging approaches play an imperative role in diagnosis and prognosis...

Felty syndrome (FS) and infective endocarditis (IE) can present with similar signs and symptoms. FS is a diagnosis of exclusion, which poses a challenge for the clinician since accurate diagnosis is required to treat this condition effectively. A 52-year-old woman with a 15-year history of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was admitted due to dyspnea and pain in the right ankle and left arm for two weeks. She was hemodynamically stable and afebrile. Physical examination revealed right ankle swelling and tenderness, left forearm tenderness, abdominal distension, and swan-neck finger deformities...

BACKGROUND: Bacterial infective endocarditis caused by Proteus mirabilis is rare and there are few cases in the literature. The natural history and treatment of this disease is not as clear but presumed to be associated with complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI). CASE PRESENTATION: A 65-year-old female with a history of rheumatoid arthritis, factor V Leiden hypercoagulability, and prior saddle pulmonary embolism presented to the emergency department following a mechanical fall...

Background Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients show a higher risk of heart failure. The present study investigated possible causes of cardiac dysfunction related to thyroid hormone (TH) signaling in a RA mouse model. Methods A TNF-driven mouse model of RA[TghuTNF (Tg197)] was used. Cardiac function was evaluated by echocardiography. SERCA2a and phospholamban protein levels in left ventricle (LV) tissue, thyroid hormone levels in serum, TH receptors in LV and TH-related kinase signaling pathways were measured...

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) increases the risk for abnormalities of the cardiac structure and function, which may lead to heart failure (HF). Studying the association between circulating biomarkers and echocardiographic parameters is important to screen patients with RA with a higher risk of cardiac dysfunction. Aim: To study the association between circulating biomarkers and echocardiographic parameters in patients with RA. Methods: Echocardiography was performed in 355 patients with RA from RA Porto cohort and the associations between echocardiographic characteristics and 94 circulating biomarkers were assessed...

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is characterised by a high prevalence, low awareness and poor control among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Correct blood pressure (BP) measurement is highly important in these subjects. The "unattended" BP measurement aims to reduce the "white-coat effect," a phenomenon associated with cardiovascular risk. Data on "unattended" BP measurement in RA and its impact on hypertensive organ damage are very limited. METHODS: BP was measured in the same patient both traditionally ("attended" BP) and by the "unattended" protocol (3 automated office BP measurements, at 1-min intervals, after 5 min of rest, with patient left alone) by a randomised cross-over design...

To evaluate the changes of left atrial (LA) geometry and function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by conventional echocardiography and two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging (2D-STI). We enrolled 46 RA patients with a duration of < 5 years as Group I, 40 RA patients with a duration of ≥ 5 years as Group II, and 40 normal subjects as the control group. Conventional echocardiography was conducted to measure traditional parameters. The LA strain during reservoir phase (LASr), LA strain during conduit phase (LAScd), LA strain during contraction phase (LASct), and LA global longitudinal strain (LAGLS) were obtained from 2D-STI...

BACKGROUND: Disturbances of diastolic function precede systolic heart failure and, although clinically silent, represent the earliest sign of cardiac involvement. Diastolic dysfunction (DD) is associated with age, gender (female), and hypertension. However, little is known about the age-specific incidence rates and risk factors for DD in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: We used standard two-dimensional/Doppler echocardiography to screen for the presence of diastolic dysfunction in 61 patients with RA and 107 healthy subjects...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) carries a twofold increased incidence of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, accompanied by diastolic dysfunction, which can lead to death. The causes of diastolic dysfunction are unknown, and there are currently no well-characterized animal models for studying these mechanisms. Current medications for RA do not have marked beneficial cardio-protective effects. K/BxN F1 progeny and KRN control mice were analyzed over time for arthritis development, monitoring left ventricular diastolic and systolic function using echocardiography...

An 83-year-old woman with a history of asthma complained of left abdominal pain and was admitted to our hospital. She was treated with tocilizumab, an anti-interleukin (IL)-6 receptor antibody, with a prolonged interval for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Laboratory tests revealed a remarkable increase in eosinophil count and inflammatory markers with negative antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies. Echocardiography revealed pericardial fluid retention, and contrast-enhanced computed tomography revealed the thickening of the gastric antrum wall...