You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Poster Presentations
Rheumatoid arthritis - comorbidity and clinical aspects
FRI0093 The Framingham Score is a Useful Surrogate Marker of High Risk Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
  1. P.H. Dessein1,
  2. A. Corrales2,
  3. R. Lopez-Mejias2,
  4. A. Solomon3,
  5. A.J. Woodiwiss1,
  6. J. Llorca4,
  7. G.R. Norton1,
  8. F. Genre2,
  9. R. Blanco2,
  10. T. Pina2,
  11. C. Gonzalez-Juanatey5,
  12. L. Tsang1,
  13. M.A. Gonzalez-Gay2
  1. 1Cardiovascular Pathophysiology and Genomics Research Unit, School of Physiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  2. 2Epidemiology, Genetics and Atherosclerosis Research Group on Systemic Inflammatory Diseases, Rheumatology Division, IDIVAL, Santander, Spain
  3. 3Rheumatology, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  4. 4Epidemiology and Computational Biology, School of Medicine, University of Cantabria, Santander
  5. 5Cardiology Division, Hospital Lucus Augusti, Lugo, Spain

Abstract

Background Carotid artery plaque as identified by ultrasound represents very high risk atherosclerosis.

Objectives We determined the performance of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk equations including the Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) and Framingham score in predicting plaque presence in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods A cohort of 330 cases was assembled amongst 451 Spanish patients that underwent CVD risk screening and carotid ultrasound. Applied exclusion criteria were established CVD, diabetes and moderate or severe chronic kidney disease. The findings were validated in 90 black and 97 white African RA patients.

Results Carotid plaque was present in 162 (49.1%) of the Spanish patients. The SCORE and Framingham score were each strongly associated with plaque (P <0.0001). In predicting plaque presence, the area under the curve (AUC) (SE) of the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve for the Framingham score was larger than for the SCORE (0.799 (0.024) versus 0.747 (0.027), P =0.003). The optimal cut-off value and corresponding sensitivity and specificity for the Framingham score and SCORE were 11.0, 64% and 81% and 0.5, 86% and 58%, respectively. Based on optimal cut-off values, a high Framingham score but not SCORE was associated with carotid plaque independent of age, sex, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein concentrations. Whereas a conventional Framingham score value of ≥20 correctly classified only 25% as being at high CVD risk, this proportion increased to 64% in those with a Framingham score of >11; the percentage of patients without plaque incorrectly classified as being at high CVD risk increased from 17% in those with a Framingham score or ≥20 to only 23% in those with a Framingham score of >11.0. External validation produced similar results in white but not black Africans with RA.

Conclusions In this study, the Framingham score outperformed the SCORE in predicting plaque presence in RA. Upon CVD risk stratification, a Framingham score of >11.0 comprises a measure that can reclassify about 40% of white RA patients without established CVD, chronic kidney disease or/and diabetes more accurately. Delineation of effective population specific CVD risk assessment strategies is needed in black African RA patients.

Disclosure of Interest None declared

https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2015-eular.2478

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.