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(Circulation. 2003;107:e9016.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Cardiovascular News

Ruth SoRelle, MPH

Circulation Newswriter

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Women With Rheumatoid Arthritis at Increased Risk of Myocardial Infarction

In this latest iteration of the Nurses’ Health Study, a group of researchers from Harvard University School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, and The Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass, prospectively studied a cohort of 114 341 women and determined that women with rheumatoid arthritis were at increased risk of myocardial infarction but not stroke. The report appears in this week’s issue of Circulation (Circulation. 2003;107:1303–1307).

A total of 527 new cases of rheumatoid arthritis and 3622 myocardial infarctions and strokes were found among the cohort. The adjusted relative risk of heart attack among women with rheumatoid arthritis compared with those without was 2.00. The adjusted relative risk of stroke was 1.48.

Among women who had had rheumatoid arthritis for at least 10 years, the myocardial infarction risk was 2.10. The authors, led by Daniel Solomon, MD, MPH, of The Brigham and Women’s Hospital, noted: "If these data are confirmed, aggressive coronary heart disease prevention strategies should be tested for persons with rheumatoid arthritis."

Mutation at Fault in Inherited Human Dilated Cardiomyopathy Identified
An international team of researchers reported on the identification of a mutation in a protein called phospholamban that results in disruption of the heart’s calcium regulation and an inherited form of dilated cardiomyopathy. The report appears in the February 28, 2003, issue of Science (Science. 299:1410–1414).

The researchers from Harvard Medical School, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and The Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, Mass, the University of Toronto, Canada, and the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, said they hoped that . . . [Full Text of this Article]