Clinical outcomes of patients with rheumatoid arthritis who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention: A Korean nationwide cohort study

OBJECTIVE: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to investigate the short-and long-term prognosis of patients with and without RA who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS: The Korean National Health Insurance Service claims database was used to extract data on 236,134 patients (34,493 with RA and 201,641 without RA) who underwent PCI between 2008 and 2019. The primary outcome was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), including all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke, transient ischemic attack, or coronary revascularization with short-term (30-day) and long-term outcomes. The secondary outcomes were the individual components of MACE. RESULTS: During a 10-year follow-up, patients with RA showed a shorter median survival time from MACE than their counterparts (with RA: 4.29 years vs. without RA: 6.10 years). RA was significantly associated with an increased risk of MACEs in long-term outcomes (hazard ratio (HR) 1.07, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.06–1.09, p<0.001), but not with short-term outcomes (HR 1.02, 95% CI 0.99–1.06, p = 0.222). RA was an independent predictor of an increased risk of all the MACE components. CONCLUSION: In patients who underwent PCI, RA did not increase the risk of short-term cardiovascular outcomes but increased the risk of long-term adverse outcomes.