Abstract
Rheumatic diseases in general increase cardiovascular risk. The mechanisms giving rise to this increase predominantly relate to inflammatory activity typically accompanying these diseases.
Another area modifying cardiovascular risk is the treatment of rheumatic diseases. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as well as glucocorticoids tend to rather increase the risk of atherothrombotic vascular events, whereas disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) may have a more favourable effect in this respect.
Biological therapy (in particular the preparations from the anti-TNF-alfa group) tend to reduce the vascular risk. In any case it is advisable to evaluate the cardiovascular risk profile of a patient with a rheumatic disease when choosing therapeutic procedures, and apply preventive measures including pharmacotherapy where CV risk needs to be reduced.