. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Mar 1.

Published in final edited form as: Ann Rheum Dis. 2011 Jan 7;70(3):482–487. doi: 10.1136/ard.2010.135871

Table 2.

Associations of inflammatory measures and lipid measures with cardiovascular outcomes and mortality ^*^#

Outcome	CVD HR (95% CI)	Heart Failure HR (95% CI)	Mortality HR (95% CI)
Measure	CVD HR (95% CI)	Heart Failure HR (95% CI)	Mortality HR (95% CI)
Inflammatory measures ^‡
ESR, mm/hr	1.20 (1.11, 1.31)	1.23 (1.12, 1.35)	1.22 (1.14, 1.31)
CRP, mg/L	1.10 (0.99, 1.22)	1.25 (1.06, 1.48)	1.08 (1.01, 1.16)
Inflammatory Burden ^†
Lower ESR Tertile	1	1	1
Middle ESR Tertile	2.44 (1.32, 4.48)	1.28 (0.59, 2.76)	5.84 (3.06, 11.1)
Upper ESR Tertile	3.48 (1.89, 6.43)	2.28 (1.15, 4.53)	7.19 (3.77, 13.7)
(p-value)	(p-value < 0.001)	(p-value =0.055)	(p-value < 0.001)
Lipid measures
TCh, mmol/L	0.96 (0.90, 1.02)	0.92 (0.85, 0.99)	0.96 (0.92, 1.02)
LDL, mmol/L	0.95 (0.88, 1.02)	0.95 (0.87, 1.04)	0.98 (0.93, 1.04)
HDL, mmol/L	1.13 (0.94, 1.35)	1.35 (1.09, 1.68)	1.10 (0.96, 1.27)
TG, mmol/L	1.03 (1.00, 1.06)	1.01 (0.97, 1.05)	0.99 (0.96, 1.02)
TCh/HDL	0.99 (0.78, 1.25)	1.12 (0.86, 1.46)	1.06 (0.88, 1.29)
LDL/HDL	0.89 (0.66, 1.20)	1.06 (0.77, 1.47)	1.07 (0.85, 1.35)

adjusting for age, sex and year of RA incidence

statistically significant associations (p<0.05) are shown in bold;

^‡

Hazard ratios for ESR are reported per 10 mm/hr increase, for CRP per 10 mg/dL increase

^†

Cumulative ESR tertiles defined as follows: lower tertile (0 – 15,000 mm/hr); middle tertile (15,001 – 45,000 mm/hr); upper tertile (45,001 mm/hr and greater). For each outcome the lower tertile is the reference group.

Abbreviations: CVD = cardiovascular disease; HR = hazard ratio; ESR = erythrocyte sedimentation rate; CRP = C-reactive protein; TCh = total cholesterol; LDL = low density cholesterol; HDL = high density cholesterol; TG = triglycerides.