medwireNews: Low disease activity could delay the time to first cardiovascular disease (CVD) event in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
In fact, although sustained remission is considered the ultimate treatment target, the researchers found that it “does not seem to provide a large advantage over low disease activity over time in terms [of] further reducing CVD risk.”
Among 873 participants of the Nijmegen early RA inception cohort, the risk for a CVD event during the initial 10 years of follow-up was a significant 35% lower for patients who had a disease activity score at 28 joints (DAS28) of 3.2 or below than for those with a higher score, after adjusting for confounders.
Furthermore, the time to first CVD event was comparable for patients with a DAS28 score of 2.6–3.2 and those who achieved remission, defined as a DAS28 score below 2.6.
“Our results strengthen the use of tight control (treat-to-target) strategies in daily clinical practice to achieve low disease activity or remission in these patients,” says the team led by Elke Arts (Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands) in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
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