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Mackey RH, Kuller LH, Deane KD, Walitt BT, Chang YF, Holers VM, Robinson WH, Tracy RP, Hlatky MA, Eaton C, Liu S, Freiberg MS, Birru Talabi M, Schelbert EB, Moreland LW. Rheumatoid arthritis, anti-CCP positivity, and cardiovascular disease risk in the Women's Health Initiative. Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.). 2015 May 18.
Abstract
This report evaluates incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality over 10 years among the >160,000 postmenopausal women in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) in relation to self-reported RA, disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARD) use, anti-CCP+, RF+, CVD risk factors, joint pain, and inflammation (white blood cell (WBC) count and IL-6.) Methods: Anti-CCP and RF were measured on a sample (n=9,988) of WHI participants with self-reported RA. RA was classified as self-reported RA plus anti-CCP+ positivity and/or use of DMARDs. Self-reported RA that was both anti-CCP- and DMARD- was classified as "unverified RA."