Cardiovascular risk management in patients with inflammatory arthritis: what is good for the joint is good for the heart and vice versa!

Owing to the prominent long-term systemic inflammatory reaction in patients with arthritides and a growing body of data illustrating that this inflammatory reaction imposes a considerable risk for the development or aggravation of cardiovascular (CV) disease or overall CV risk, numerous researchers and clinicians have put enormous effort into the analysis of the effects of risk factors on the course of CV disease in these patients and the therapeutic options to antagonize progressive atherosclerosis. To achieve this challenging goal, investigators have shown that all treatment strategies must include the ‘non-rheumatic’ approaches, such as lowering blood pressure, stopping smoking, and improving metabolic status, in tight association with lowering the overall disease activity of the underlying rheumatic entity using antiphlogistic drugs and conventional as well as biologic disease-modifying drugs.