International Clinical and Medical Case Reports Journal (ISSN: 2832-5788) | Volume 3, Issue 6 | Review Article | Open Access DOI
Divine Besong Arrey Agbor *
Divine Besong Arrey Agbor1*, Derek Ugwendum1, Sabastain Forsah1, Luc Landry Sumo Kouatcho2, Isabelle Mulango3, Tochukwu Nzeako4, Emmanuel Ababio Agyemang5, Gauvain Kankeu Tonpouwo1, Yannick Nathel Tata2, Aimee Tiodoung Timnou6, Kouossu Tsemo Sophie Vanessa2, Nancelle Ndema1 and Jay Nfonoyim1
1Internal Medicine Department, Richmond University Medical Center, New York, USA
2Higher Institute of Medical Technology, Yaounde, Cameroon
3Department of Infectious Disease, West Virginia University, USA
4Internal Medicine Department, Christina Care hospital, Delaware, USA
5Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, New Jersey, USA
6Universite Libre Bruxelles, Belgium
*Correspondence to: Divine Besong Arrey Agbor
Fulltext PDFBackground: Rheumatoid arthritis is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) owing to the higher prevalence of traditional risk factors in conjunction with chronic systemic inflammation.
Objective: This review aims to elucidate the effect of various types of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs on cardiovascular diseases.
Method: A review of existing literature through PubMed, PubMed Central, MEDLINE, Science Direct, Google scholar was done. Keywords like; Rheumatoid arthritis, Disease modifying antirheumatic medications, cardiovascular diseases, tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi), Janus Kinase inhibitors (JAKi), Methotrexate were used in the search. Articles included in the study were full text, free articles, review articles, randomized clinical trials that were published in English language carried in humans. The articles excluded were articles not published in English language, paid articles, animal studies.
Results: It was revealed that Methotrexate, TNF inhibitors, and IL-6 inhibitors reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Although not demonstrated consistently across studies, JAK inhibitors have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular adverse events. This appears to agree with current guidelines in restricting the use of JAK inhibitors only in the absence of safer alternatives in those with enhanced cardiovascular risk factors.
Conclusion: Rheumatoid arthritis, being an inflammatory disorder predisposes an individual to CVD risk while managing RA patients it becomes important to use medications that decrease the risk of CVD. JAK inhibitors have been linked with increasing the CVD risk, while TNFi and IL-6 inhibitors have shown no statistically significant data till now. However, there is a lack of data on JAK inhibitors as well as TNFi on their effects on CVD and more research is needed.
Rheumatoid arthritis; Disease modifying antirheumatic medications; Cardiovascular diseases; Tumor necrosis factor inhibitors; Janus kinase inhibitors; Methotrexate
Agbor DBA, Ugwendum D, Forsah S, Forsah S, Kouatcho LLS, Mulango I, et al. Disease Modifying Antirheumatic Medications and the Effect on Cardiovascular System: A Narrative Review. Int Clinc Med Case Rep Jour. 2024;3(6):1-8.