The effect of treatments for rheumatoid arthritis on endothelial dysfunction evaluated by flow-mediated vasodilation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The effect of treatments for rheumatoid arthritis on endothelial dysfunction evaluated by flow-mediated vasodilation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Curr Vasc Pharmacol. 2016 Oct 13; Authors: Kotani K, Miyamoto M, Ando H Abstract Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease with a potential cardiovascular (CV) risk. Flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) is an ultrasonic method to evaluate endothelial function. RA is a contributor to endothelial dysfunction, a CV risk. Relevant insights on the improvement of the CV outcomes in RA patients may be obtained by a systematic review of trials that investigated the effects of RA treatment on FMD in RA patients. This review found that treatments with antirheumatic drugs and some non-antirheumatic drugs could improve the FMD in RA patients. Treatment with anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α drugs, including infliximab, etanercept and adalimumab, improved the FMD in RA patients. Treatment with non-anti-TNF-α drugs, including rituximab, anakinra and tocilizumab, also improved the FMD. One trial showed that conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) improved the FMD. Regarding non-antirheumatic drugs, treatment with ramipril, spironolactone and statins/ezetimibe improved the FMD in RA patients. Treatment of advanced glycation end-products inhibitors improved the FMD in RA patients, while treatment of pioglitazone did not. Overall, treatments for RA im...
Source: Current Vascular Pharmacology - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Curr Vasc Pharmacol Source Type: research