Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have a higher mortality than the general population, and this increased mortality is related to demographic and disease variables. N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is a predictor of mortality both in general and patient populations, but has not been shown to predict mortality in patients with RA. This study examines whether NT-proBNP can further improve the prediction of mortality in RA.
182 patients with RA of 5-9 years disease duration were comprehensively examined in 1997. Serum samples were frozen and later batch analysed for NT-proBNP levels and other biomarkers. Adjusted univariate and logistic regression analyses were performed with death within the 10-year follow-up period as the dependent variable. Significant predictors were also examined as dichotomised variables.
Mortality was predicted in univariate analyses by the following variables: age, sex, homozygosity for HLA-DRB1 shared epitope alleles, Health Assessment Questionnaire, 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28) and NT-proBNP. A multivariate model with age, sex, DAS28 and NT-proBNP as independent variables showed the greatest discrimination.
NT-proBNP provided incremental information in the prediction of mortality in this cohort of patients with RA.