medwireNews: Patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) may have an elevated risk for subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD), researchers report.
In their systematic review and meta-analysis of data from eight studies involving a total of 767 participants, Wai Chung Yong (Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA) and colleagues demonstrated a significant increase in arterial stiffness among pSS patients relative to controls without the disease, with a mean difference in pulse wave velocity of 1.30 m/s.
Individuals with pSS also had significantly higher intima–media thickness than controls, at a mean difference of 0.08 mm, indicating that pSS is associated with subclinical atherosclerosis, say the researchers.
Yong et al write in Clinical Rheumatology that “[m]ore large-scale studies need to be conducted” to determine whether subclinical atherosclerosis in this population is associated with cardiovascular or cerebrovascular events.
And they conclude: “Randomized controlled trials or prospective cohort studies to explore the benefit of statins, controlling cardiovascular risk factors or disease activity could potentially help providers in improving patients’ general health and avoiding progression of atherosclerosis.”
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