Untreated RA, lipid profiles, atherosclerosis

[Guest guest]

BOSTON -- A treatment response also appears to improve lipid profiles in

patients with rheumatoid arthritis, Dr. Yong-Beom Park said at the

annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.

Dr. Park and colleagues at Yonsei University College of Medicine in

Seoul, Korea, compared lipid profiles before and after treatment in 41

previously untreated patients with active rheumatoid arthritis.

All patients started weekly methotrexate with or without prednisolone

and other disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. After a year of

treatment, Dr. Park found that levels of HDL cholesterol and

apolipoprotein A-I (apo A-I) were significantly higher for patients

after treatment than before.

The mean HDL level rose from 41.4 to 46.6 mg/dL, and the mean level of

apo A-I rose from 131.7 to 156.3 mg/dL. Both differences were considered

to be statistically significant.

Changes in HDL and apo A-I levels were more significant among patients

whose arthritis responded more effectively to the drugs than among

patients whose arthritis did not respond as well.

Patients who achieved a 20% improvement in their condition, based on

American College of Rheumatology standardized criteria, had mean apo A-I

levels that rose from 132.9 to 165.4 mg/dL and mean HDL levels that

increased from 41.1 to 49.5 mg/dL.

Patients who didn't achieve that 20% benchmark wound up with apo A-I

levels at a mean of 136.5 mg/dL and HDL levels at 41.7 mg/dL.

In a previous study, Dr. Park found that when patients with active

rheumatoid arthritis remained untreated, they eventually developed

abnormal lipoprotein and apolipoprotein patterns that put them at higher

risk for atherosclerosis.

In that study, lipid profiles were compared for 42 patients with

untreated rheumatoid arthritis and for 42 sex-matched healthy control

subjects.

They found that apo A-I and HDL cholesterol levels were significantly

lower in patients than in controls, 128.5 versus 151.8 mg/dL and 41.2

versus 54.9 mg/dL, respectively (J. Rheumatol. 26[8]:1701-04, 1999).

COPYRIGHT 2000 International Medical News Group

COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BJI/is_1_30/ai_59457668

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org