RESEARCH - RA-specific BMI thresholds needed to spot those at risk for heart disease

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RA-Specific BMI Thresholds Needed to Spot Those at Risk for Heart Disease

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jan 30 - Disease-specific body mass index

thresholds for overweight and obese can better identify rheumatoid

arthritis (RA) patients at increased risk for cardiovascular disease

(CVD), researchers from the UK and Greece report.

Dr. s Stavropoulos-Kalinoglou from Dudley Group of Hospitals

NHS Trust and colleagues quantified the associations of BMI with

classical modifiable CVD risk factors in 276 women and 102 men with

RA.

" The results suggest an almost linear relationship between BMI and CVD

risk in this patient group, with the risk profile worsening as BMI

increases, in a pattern similar to that described in the general

population, " they report in the ls of the Rheumatic Diseases for

January.

The total number of CVD risk factors, as well as their severity,

increased with BMI. These associations were " expected, " Dr.

Stavropoulos-Kalinoglou told Reuters Health, and were independent of

multiple confounders.

" From a clinical point of view, " the researcher added, " the most

interesting finding was that the prevalence of risk factors increased

significantly at a BMI of 23 and then again at a BMI of 28. "

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Read the whole article here:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/587630

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