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Assessment of aortic stiffness among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis by magnetic resonance imaging

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Abstract

To evaluate aortic stiffness by MRI in female patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in comparison to controls. We measured aortic strain, distensibility and pulse wave velocity (PWV) by MRI in 30 SLE patients, 31 RA patients and 53 matched controls. Mean PWV in SLE and RA patients were higher in comparison to controls (9.2 ± 4.4 vs. 7.6 ± 3.0 m/s, p = 0.04) and (6.2 ± 2.3 vs. 5.4 ± 1.7, p = 0.04) respectively. Aortic distensibility among RA patients was significantly lower in comparison to controls (4.4 ± 4.6 vs. 5.8 ± 4.9 kPa−1 × 10−3, p = 0.04). A significant correlation was found between PWV and age (r = 0.67, p < 0.001), Framingham risk score (r = 0.61, p < 0.001), waist to hip ratio (r = 0.45, p < 0.001), systolic blood pressure (r = 0.37, p = 0.01), diabetes (r = 0.32, p = 0.001) and dyslipidemia (r = 0.32, p = 0.001). In multivariate analysis for the prediction of PWV, variables which were found significant included: RA (p = 0.01), age (p < 0.001) and hypertension (p = 0.01) for patients with RA and SLE (p = 0.02), waist to hip ratio (p < 0.001) and total cholesterol (p < 0.001) for patients with SLE. Arterial stiffness, characterized by metrics of aortic distensibility and pulse wave velocity derived from MRI, is increased in SLE and RA female patients.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Medicine, Soroka University Medical Center, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

      Galia Karp, Talya Wolak, Lior Fuchs & Mahmoud Abu-Shakra

    2. Department of Cardiology, Cardiac Imaging Unit, Soroka University Medical Center, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

      Arik Wolak & Aryeh Shalev

    3. Clinical Research Center, Soroka University Medical Center, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

      Yael Baumfeld & Victor Novack

    4. Radiology Division, Soroka University Medical Center, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

      Nina Bar-Am & Ilan Shelef

    5. Rheumatic Disease Unit, Soroka Medical Center, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

      Mahmoud Abu-Shakra

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    1. Galia Karp
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    Correspondence to Mahmoud Abu-Shakra.

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    All authors state that all procedures performed in the study were in accordance with ethical standards of the Soroka Medical Center and Ben-Gurion University Research Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

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    Informed consent was obtained from all individual participant included in the study.

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    Galia Karp and Arik Wolak have contributed equally.

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    Karp, G., Wolak, A., Baumfeld, Y. et al. Assessment of aortic stiffness among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis by magnetic resonance imaging. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 32, 935–944 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-016-0851-y

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-016-0851-y

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