Long-term anti-TNF-alpha treatments reverse the endothelial dysfunction in rheumatoid arthritis: the biological coherence between synovial and endothelial inflammation

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with an excess cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, related to systemic inflammation with endothelial dysfunction (ED) and impaired flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD). We assessed the FMD response to anti-TNF-alpha treatments in 28 RA patients, aged 49.8+/-15.3 years: an unpaired FMD was found in 66.7 percent of our cases and was restored after 6 weeks of anti-TNF-á treatment (13.5+/-5.3 percent vs 4.6+/-4.1 percent, p less than 0.05). Twenty-five percent of the infliximab patients demonstrated a long term response, compared with 60 percent of etanercept and 100 percent of adalimumab patients, after 2 years (p less than 0.01). Infections (3 cases), myocardial ischemia (1 case) or loss of response (4 cases) were associated with a worsened FMD, restored by shifting to adalimumab. The present study confirms that ED is an RA systemic disease marker, responsive to anti-TNF-alpha treatment and sensitive to clinical events or to a loss of response, underlying the biological coherence between synovial and endothelial inflammation.