Article Text
Abstract
Objectives Cardiovascular complications are the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the course of Takayasu arteritis (TA).In addition to the occlusive vasculitis,hypertension and accelerated atherosclerosis are possibly other factors playing role in the ethiopathogenesis of these complications.Although,strict management of traditional cardiovascular risk factors is advocated to diminish the effect of cardiovascular complications,we still do not know whether traditional risk factors and other comorbid conditions are increased or operative.In this study we looked at the frequency of traditional atherosclerotic risk factors and comorbid conditions among patients with TA and suitable diseased and healthy controls.
Methods We studied 88 (77F,11M) consecutive TA patients and 71 (66F,5M) SLE patients,between May and November 2016.In addition,age and gender matched, 96 (80F, 16M) healthy controls were included.Study participants were interviewed with the help of a standardized questionnaire that assess the presence or absence of traditional atherosclerotic risk factors and several comorbid conditions according to the Charlson comorbidity index.Additionally,Framingham coronary heart disease risk score was calculated.
Results Smoking was more frequent among the healthy controls,whereas hypertension and family history of cardiovascular diseases were more common among TA patients.Patients with SLE were found to have less hyperlipidemia.The Framingham risk scores did not differ among the groups.Pericardial/pleural and renal diseases were more frequently observed in SLE patients,whereas cardiovascular diseases and chronic lung diseases were more common in TA patients.Inflammatory bowel diseases were only observed in TA patients.
Conclusions Traditional atherosclerotic risk factors are not increased in TA.Comorbidities in these patients are mainly due to the complications of vascular involvement.The frequency of inflammatory bowel diseases and inflammatory upper/lower back pain is substantially high and deserves further research. Moreover, the increased incidence of cardiovascular and rheumatologic diseases among the first-degree relatives of TA patients suggest that genetic mechanisms may play role in TA
Disclosure of Interest None declared