title: Cardiovascular risk in rheumatoid arthritis: when does it really start?
abstract: There is an ongoing debate as to when increased cardiovascular risk of patients with rheumatoid arthritis actually begins. In the article under evaluation, the authors investigate the incidence of cardiovascular disease, particularly myocardial infarction, in a well-defined inception cohort of rheumatoid arthritis patients in comparison to the general population. The results indicate that the increased cardiovascular risk is already present at disease onset, underscoring the need for cardiovascular risk management for all rheumatoid arthritis patients.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, VU University Medical Centre, Jan van Breemen Research Institute, PO Box 7057, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. mt.nurmohamed@vumc.nl
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Nurmohamed