RA Increases Stroke Risk in Atrial Fibrillation

TOPLINE: 
Patients with both rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and atrial fibrillation (AF) have a higher risk for ischemic stroke than those with only AF. They are also less likely to receive oral anticoagulant treatment, which may contribute to this increased stroke risk.
METHODOLOGY:
Researchers conducted a registry-based retrospective cohort study using the Norwegian Cardio-Rheuma Register to evaluate the risk for ischemic stroke following the diagnosis of AF in patients with or without RA.
They included 163,595 patients with newly diagnosed AF between 2010 and 2017, of whom 2750 had RA. Patients had to be diagnosed with RA before the diagnosis of AF.
They also assessed whether patients with RA were less likely to receive oral anticoagulants for stroke prevention within 3 months of AF diagnosis than those without RA.
The median follow-up time was 2.5 years for patients with RA and 3.0 years for those without RA.
The primary endpoint was ischemic stroke, which was identified through hospital admissions and visits.
TAKEAWAY:
At 5 years, patients with both RA and AF showed a higher cumulative incidence of ischemic stroke than those with only AF (7.3% vs 5.0%).
Among patients with AF, the risk of having a stroke was 25% higher in those with RA than in those without RA (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.05-1.50).
Patients with RA were also less likely to receive treatment with oral anticoagulants than those without RA, driven by concerns over potential interactions with RA medications, bleeding risk, or other factors (adjusted odds ratio, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.80-0.97). 
IN PRACTICE:
“Our study prompts preventive measures such as meticulous cardiovascular risk factor control among patients with RA and AF and raises the question whether the presence of RA should be taken into account when considering OAC [oral anticoagulant] treatment for AF patients,” the authors wrote.
SOURCE:
This study was led by Anne M. Kerola, MD, PhD, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. It was published online on August 22, 2024, in Rheumatology.
LIMITATIONS: 
This study lacked data on smoking, blood pressure measurements, alcohol use, and obesity, which may have affected the comprehensiveness of the findings. The study population was limited to Norway and may not be generalizable to other populations.
DISCLOSURES:
This study was supported by the Olav Thon Foundation, the Research Council of Norway, and the Foundation for Research in Rheumatology. Some authors received speaker fees, participated in advisory boards, served as consultants, or had other ties with some pharmaceutical companies and institutions.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
 
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