Hypertension (HTN) is common in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Both HTN and RA have a negative impact on echocardiographically determined parameters including wall thickness, chamber diameter, diastolic function, epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) and carotid intima media thickness (CIMT). We aimed to demonstrate the effect of HTN on these parameters in RA patients.
Patients were divided into two groups: one group comprised 39 RA patients with HTN (7 male, mean age 56.3 ± 8.4 years) and the second comprised 38 age- and gender-matched RA patients without HTN (10 male, mean age 55.3 ± 7.4 years). We retrospectively analyzed the RA patients without overt structural heart disease by determining the study parameters from echocardiograph recordings. The two groups were compared in terms of echocardiographic parameters and disease characteristics.
RA characteristics, chamber sizes and wall thicknesses did not differ between the groups. CIMT was significantly increased in the RA with HTN group (median 0.9 mm, range 0.6-1.2 mm vs. median 0.8 mm, range 0.6-1.0 mm; p = 0.031). EAT was also significantly increased in the RA with HTN group (8.2 ± 1.8 mm vs. 7.4 ± 1.4 mm; p = 0.022). Septal early diastolic E' wave velocities were significantly decreased in the RA with HTN group (8.8 ± 2.4 cm/s vs. 10.2 ± 1.8 cm/s; p = 0.016).
HTN has a further negative impact on diastolic functions, CIMT and EAT in RA patients.