The incidence of cardiovascular events (CVEs) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is higher than that in people without RA. This may be because inflammation promotes the progression of atherosclerosis. Anti-inflammatory drugs might reduce the occurrence of CVEs in patients with RA. Methotrexate (MTX) is a conventional synthetic anti-rheumatic drug that is widely used in the treatment of RA. We performed a meta-analysis to determine whether MTX can prevent CVEs in RA patients. Then, we discussed the possibility of using MTX to prevent recurred CVEs in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD).
We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library using the key words "methotrexate," "cardiovascular," "acute coronary syndrome," "coronary heart disease," "myocardial infarction," "angina pectoris," and "rheumatoid arthritis." The efficacy outcome was defined as a composite of CVEs, including stable angina, acute coronary syndrome, stroke, heart failure, and cardiac death.
A total of 10 studies and 195,416 RA patients were included in our meta-analysis, and the effect size of relative risk (RR) was pooled using a fixed effect model. The results showed that MTX prevented CVEs in RA patients (RR: 0.798, 95% CI 0.726-0.876, P = .001, I2 = 27. 9%).
MTX can prevent CVEs in RA patients, but there is not sufficient evidence for using MTX to treat patients with CHD.