Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory disease associated with increased cardiovascular (CV) mortality. A recent study has disclosed association between NFKB1-94ATTG ins/del polymorphism and higher risk of coronary heart disease in healthy Caucasians. Because of that, we assessed the influence of this polymorphism in the risk of CV disease in RA patients.
1437 Spanish patients with RA were genotyped for the NFKB1-94ATTG ins/del polymorphism. Two hundred and seventy-one of them (18.8%) had experienced CV events.
After adjusting for sex, age at RA diagnosis and traditional CV risk factors RA patients carrying the NFKB1 del/del genotype had higher risk of CV events than those with ins/ins genotype (Hazard ratio [HR] = 1.76, 95% CI: 1.05-2.97, p = 0.03), while heterozygous patients had an intermediate (but non-significant) risk (HR = 1.31, 95% CI: 0.90-1.92, p = 0.16).
Our results suggest that NFKB1-94ATTG ins/del polymorphism is associated with CV disease in patients with RA.