No differences in myocardial perfusion between treatment‐naive, early rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy controls

healthy controls. Perfusion did not increase after 1 year of RA-directed treatment, and there was no difference in perfusion between treatment groups, although this study was not suf ﬁ - ciently powered to detect differences in perfusion and the sample size may have been too small to adequately detect differences. These data in early RA differ from studies in established RA, which show reduced perfusion compared with healthy controls (1). These results could suggest possible differences in the time course of large and small vessel disease in RA, with macrovas-cular changes occurring before measurable myocardial microvascular disease.