title: Rheumatoid Arthritis and Incidence of Twelve Initial Presentations of Cardiovascular Disease: A Population Record-Linkage Cohort Study in England.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  While rheumatoid arthritis is an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), our knowledge of how the pattern of risk varies for different cardiovascular phenotypes is incomplete. The association between rheumatoid arthritis and the initial presentation of 12 types of CVDs were examined in a contemporary population of men and women of a wide age range.
  
  
  METHODS
  CALIBER data, which links primary care, hospital and mortality data in England, was analysed. A cohort of people aged ≥18 years and without history of CVD was assembled and included all patients with prospectively recorded rheumatoid arthritis from January 1997, until March 2010, matched with up to ten people without rheumatoid arthritis by age, sex and general practice. The associations between rheumatoid arthritis and the initial presentation of 12 types of CVDs were estimated using multivariable random effects Poisson regression models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysis included 12,120 individuals with rheumatoid arthritis and 121,191 comparators. Of these, 2,525 patients with and 18,146 without rheumatoid arthritis developed CVDs during a median of 4.2 years of follow-up. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis had higher rates of myocardial infarction (adjusted incidence ratio [IRR] = 1.43, 95%CI 1.21-1.70), unheralded coronary death (IRR = 1.60, 95%CI 1.18-2.18), heart failure (IRR = 1.61, 95%CI 1.43-1.83), cardiac arrest (HR = 2.26, 95%CI 1.69-3.02) and peripheral arterial disease (HR = 1.36, 95%CI 1.14-1.62); and lower rates of stable angina (HR = 0.83, 95%CI 0.73-0.95). There was no evidence of association with cerebrovascular diseases, abdominal aortic aneurysm or unstable angina, or of interactions with sex or age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The observed associations with some but not all types of CVDs inform both clinical practice and the selection of cardiovascular endpoints for trials and for the development of prognostic models for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
authors.affiliation: Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London NW1 2DA, United Kingdom.|Leeds Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, MRC Medical Bioinformatics Centre, Worsley Building, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pujades-Rodriguez
authors.affiliation: Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London NW1 2DA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Bram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Duyx
authors.affiliation: Department of Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Sara L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London NW1 2DA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stogiannis
authors.affiliation: Centre of Rheumatology Research, Division of Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University College London, London WC1E 6JF, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Anisur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London NW1 2DA, United Kingdom.|Department of Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Liam
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Smeeth
authors.affiliation: Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London NW1 2DA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Harry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hemingway
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors