Is HLA B27 antigen a predictor of cardiac or pulmonary disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis?
Pericarditis was a frequent echocardiographic finding in 20 HLA B27 positive patients with erosive, seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and in 20 B27 negative RA controls (35% and 30% respectively). There was no significant difference in echocardiographic 2-D or M-mode measurements between the groups. A 48 hour continuous electrocardiographic monitoring, showed that ventricular extrasystoles were more frequent (p less than 0.01) in the B27 negative patients. Pulmonary diffusion capacity was reduced in 25% of the patients in both groups. There were no association between clinical or laboratory data and the cardiac or pulmonary findings except for the finding of a higher frequency of treatment with corticosteroids in patients with pericarditis.
Rantapää Dahlqvist
S
S
Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden.
Backman
C
C
Bjerle
P
P
Johnson
O
O
D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D015796:HLA-B27 Antigen / Q000032:analysis*; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D013147:Spirometry
D015796:HLA-B27 Antigen