Objectives: We aimed to determine which disease features could be associated to the risk of cardiovascular (CV) events in a PsA cohort from a tertiary care institution.
Methods: We conducted an age- and sex-matched case-control study in which the cases were all PsA patients who developed cardiovascular (CV) events during the study period (2010-14). The control group was free of CV events during the same period. Univariate analysis was performed to examine unadjusted associations of potential risk factors. Significant variables in the univariate analysis were then introduced in a multivariate analysis with a backward stepwise approach.
Results: Of the 206 patients enrolled, 17 (8.3%) patients developed a total of 25 CV events (10 stroke, 9 acute coronary events and 6 ischaemic peripheral vascular events). In univariate analysis these patients showed more pustular psoriasis (OR 5.5, p=0.02), polyarticular onset (OR 3.2, p=0.03), polyarthritis during follow-up (OR 2.9, p=0.04), arthritis onset after 40 yr (OR 3.7, p=0.02), high lipid levels (OR 2.8, p=0.04), hypertension (OR 6.4, p=0.0008), diabetes (OR 12.1, p<0.0001) and lower educational level (OR 3.2, p=0.05). After controlling for age and other confounders, a polyarticular onset of PsA (OR 3.7, p=0.043) and diabetes (OR 8.1, p=0.001) remained as independently related to the risk of CV events.
Conclusions: Traditional CV risk factors as well as factors related to the inflammatory nature of the disease were the main predictors of CV complications in this PsA population.