Delayed Progression Of Carotid Intima Media Thickness In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: 1-Year Results Of The Francis Study

Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is recognized as an independent cardiovascular risk factor. Guidelines for cardiovascular risk (CVR) management, advise aggressive treatment in RA. Tight treatment for CVR factors in RA is not standard care and there are no prospective data. Objectives To investigate the efficacy of CVR intervention in RA patients participating in the FRANCIS study. FRANCIS is a prospective, randomized, single centre study in RA, initiated before the guidelines advocating CVR treatment in RA patients became available. Methods RA patients ≤70 years old with a CVR score Results In total 318 patients were included of whom 219 patients (69%) had a completed baseline and 1-year follow up data set. 106 patients received standard care and 113 treat-to-target. At baseline there was no difference between usual care and tight control in systolic BP, LDL-C, HDL-C, apoB, triglycerides, glucose cIMT and DAS28. After 1-year of follow up, the LDL-C, apoB levels and systolic BP were lower in both groups. The decrease in LDL-C after one year was significantly greater in the treat-to-target group compared to standard care (-0.7±0.8mmol/L vs.-0.2±1.0mmol/L; P Conclusions This is the first prospective study in RA showing that a structured cardiovascular intervention program leads to lower LDL-C levels, and delayed progression of cIMT after 12 months. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.1631