Editorial
Cardiovascular risk management in rheumatoid arthritis: are we still waiting for the first step?
1 Department of Internal Medicine, VU University Medical Centre, PO Box 7057, De Boelelaan 1117, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2 Department of Rheumatology, VU University Medical Centre, PO Box 7057, De Boelelaan 1117, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands
3 Jan van Breemen Research Institute | Reade, Dr Jan van Breemenstraat 2, 1056 AB Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Arthritis Research & Therapy 2013, 15:111 doi:10.1186/ar4185
See related research by Desai et al., http://arthritis-research.com/content/14/6/R270
Published: 19 March 2013Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with a similar cardiovascular risk to that in diabetes, and therefore cardiovascular risk management (CV-RM) - that is, identification and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs) - is mandatory. However, whether and to what extent this is done in daily clinical practice is unknown. In a retrospective cohort investigation, CV-RM was therefore compared between rheumatologists and primary care physicians (PCPs). Remarkably, CRFs in RA were less frequently identified and managed by rheumatologists in comparison with PCPs. In addition, PCPs assessed CRFs less frequently in RA than in diabetes. Obviously, there is a clear need for improvement of CV-RM in RA and this should be a joint effort from the rheumatologist and the PCP.
