European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic multi system disease of unknown cause. The most frequent site of cardiac involvement in RA is the pericardium.  Cardiac disease is clinically silent and is rarely a life-threatening complication in RA. Cardiac failure is the result of either systolic or diastolic dysfunction, or both. Hence this study was conducted to study correlation of electrocardiographic abnormalities and echocardiographic findings in rheumatoid arthritis patients without clinically evident cardiovascular manifestations with the duration of disease.
Methodology: The Hospital based cross sectional observational study was conducted on 50 patients, above 20 years attending the medicine outpatient department of Dr. S.N. Medical College and Mathura Das Mathur Hospital Jodhpur with an established diagnosis of RA, as defined by the ACR/EULAR criteria for Rheumatoid arthritis. A questionnaire was prepared and investigations were performed.
Results: Cardiovascular manifestations are common in Rheumatoid arthritis patients. This study highlights the need for systematic electrocardiogram in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, even in the early stages of the disease when cardiovascular involvement is clinically silent because electrocardiographic abnormalities are real and should alarm the physician and lead to the initiation of appropriate therapy that may help reduce the incidence of cardiovascular death in RA patients. The relation between transmitral flow alteration and disease duration suggests a sub-clinical myocardial involvement with disease progression and may be related to the high incidence of cardiovascular deaths in patients with RA