By IANS
Washington : Patients undergoing treatment for rheumatoid arthritis might unwittingly benefit by being less vulnerable to heart attacks and strokes.
An international research team studied as many as 4,363 patients from 48 locations worldwide, examining the cause and effects of rheumatoid arthritis, besides the potential benefit of medication.
The findings of the study have been published in the latest edition of the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a known risk factor in the hardening of arteries that triggered stroke and heart attacks in people 10 years earlier than in their healthy counterparts.
However, previous studies have shown that treating the condition with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), such as methotrexate, may reduce this risk. The current research quantifies this risk reduction in thousands of patients.
Antonio Naranjo of Spain, along with North American and other European colleagues, determined that risk, when adjusted for age, sex, disease activity, or lack of exercise, smoking, diabetes, and high cholesterol levels, correlated strongly with prescribed drug use.
For example, use of methotrexate, the most widely used DMARD, for just one year was found to be linked with 18 percent reduction in heart attack risk and 11 percent decrease in stroke risk, the researchers say.