Association of Elevations of Specific T Cell and Monocyte Subpopulations in Rheumatoid Arthritis With Subclinical Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of excess deaths in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, identification of features denoting patients with a risk of developing CAD is lacking. The composition of circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) subsets in RA patients differs markedly from that in healthy controls with regard to the extent of T cell activation, with clonal expansion and differentiation to effector memory status, and presence of inflammatory monocytes. In this study, we sought to evaluate whether elevations in these PBMC subpopulations in RA patients could denote those with an increased risk of subclinical CAD, as determined by the presence of coronary artery calcification (CAC).

Methods

The study cohort comprised 72 patients wit

SUBMITTER: Winchester R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4690807 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature