Is Lipoprotein-Associated Phospholipase A2 a Link between Inflammation and Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Table 1

Measurement of Lp-PLA2, intima media thickness (IMT), flow mediated dilatation (FMD), traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and disease activity in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and in age- and sex-matched controls evaluated both at baseline (T0) and after 5 years (T5). Data are expressed as mean value (standard deviation).

	RA ()		Controls ()
	At T0	At T5	At T0	At T5
Lp-PLA2, ng/mL	144.0 (41.7)	154.6	132.0 (37.8)	148.1
Intima media thickness, mm	0.52 (0.13)	0.58	0.54 (0.13)	0.60
Endothelium dependent flow mediated vasodilatation, %	109.2 (4.7)	107.0	107.2 (4.5)	106.0 (4.6)
Systolic blood pressure, mmHg	123.5 (14.4)	126.3	117.7 (11.3)	124.1
Cholesterol, mmol/L	5.5 (0.9)	5.3 (1.0)	5.3 (1.1)	5.6 (1.1)
HDL, mmol/L	1.6 (0.5)	1.6 (0.5)	1.5 (0.4)	1.7 (0.5)
Non-HDL-cholesterol, mmol/L	3.9 (0.9)	3.7 (1.0)	3.9 (1.1)	3.9 (1.1)
Triglycerides, mmol/L	1.3 (0.5)	1.2 (0.5)	1.1 (0.3)	1.0 (0.5)
BMI, kg/m^2	25.8 (4.0)	25.7 (4.5)	25.1 (4.9)	25.2 (4.2)
CRP, mg/L	11.9 (10.8)	7.7	n/a	n/a
DAS28	3.5 (1.4)	3.1 (1.5)^†	n/a	n/a

value < 0.05; value < 0.01; value < 0.0001; ^†p value = 0.061; all values compared with T0.
Lp-PLA2: lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2; HDL: high-density lipoproteins; BMI: body mass index; CRP: C-reactive protein; DAS28: disease activity score for 28-joint count.