Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of cases, controls and the remainder of the RABBIT cohort
| Cases n = 112 |
Controls n = 112 |
Remainder of the cohorta
n = 11,059 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Matching criteria | |||
| Sex, male | 48 (42.9) | 48 (42.9) | 2536 (22.9)‡ |
| Age, years, mean (SD) | 63.7 (9.1) | 63.7 (9.1) | 55.9 (12.5)‡ |
| Hypertension | 67 (60.4) | 68 (60.7) | 4102 (37.1)‡ |
| Coronary heart disease | 28 (25.2) | 26 (23.2) | 622 (5.6)‡ |
| Heart failure | 7 (6.3) | 7 (6.3) | 242 (2.2)‡ |
| Previous cerebrovascular event | 0 (0) | 2 (1.8) | 146 (1.3) |
| Hyperlipoproteinemia | 19 (17.1) | 18 (16.1) | 869 (7.9)‡ |
| Time to MI/index date, month, mean (SD) | 31.0 (24.9) | 29.5 (23.9) | NA |
| Unmatched criteria | |||
| Observation time, months, mean (SD) | 52.6 (28.6) | 60.2 (28.0)† | 44.4 (32.7)‡ |
| Disease duration, years, mean (SD) | 11.4 (10.6) | 11.4 (9.4) | 10.0 (9.1) |
| Rheumatoid factor positive | 83 (74.1) | 85 (75.9) | 7942 (72.1) |
| CRP, mg/L, mean (SD) | 23.5 (27.0) | 16.5 (22.1)† | 18.4 (26.6)‡ |
| ESR, mm/h, mean (SD) | 39.2 (28.9) | 30.7 (20.6)† | 31.3 (23.0)‡ |
| DAS28, mean (SD) | 5.6 (1.3) | 5.5 (1.3) | 5.2 (1.3)‡ |
| FFbH, mean (SD) | 53.1 (24.8) | 58.4 (23.3) | 63.0 (23.3)‡ |
| Smoking, current | 25 (22.3) | 19 (17.0) | 2355 (21.3) |
| Smoking, former | 35 (31.3) | 24 (21.4) | 2589 (23.4) |
| Smoking, never | 35 (31.3) | 61 (54.5) | 4698 (42.5) |
| Smoking, unknown | 17 (15.2) | 8 (7.1) | 1417 (12.8) |
| BMI, mean (SD) | 28.1 (5.6) | 26.7 (4.0)† | 26.6 (5.3)‡ |
| BMI ≥30 kg/m2 | 34 (30.4) | 19 (17.0)† | 2514 (22.7) |
| Diabetes mellitus | 26 (23.4) | 14 (12.5)† | 1075 (9.7)‡ |
| Chronic renal disease | 11 (9.9) | 8 (7.1) | 397 (3.6)‡ |
| COPD | 12 (10.8) | 13 (11.6) | 495 (4.5)‡ |
| No. of previous csDMARDs, mean (SD) | 2.6 (1.4) | 2.8 (1.5) | 2.4 (1.3) |
| No. of previous bDMARDs, mean (SD) | 0.5 (1.0) | 0.4 (0.9) | 0.3 (0.7) |
| Oral glucocorticoids | 103 (93.6) | 87 (77.7)† | 8788 (79.6)‡ |
| Glucocorticoids, <5 mg/day | 12 (10.9) | 29 (25.9) | 2981 (27.0) |
| Glucocorticoids, 5–10 mg/day | 64 (58.2) | 46 (41.1) | 4997 (45.3)‡ |
| Glucocorticoids, ≥10 mg/day | 34 (30.9) | 37 (33.0) | 3048 (27.6)‡ |
| Non-selective NSAIDs | 47 (42.0) | 39 (34.8) | 4260 (38.5) |
| COX-2 inhibitors | 17 (15.2) | 23 (20.5) | 1699 (15.4) |
| Any NSAIDs | 62 (55.4) | 62 (55.4) | 5895 (53.3) |
| No CV treatmentb | 27/75 (36.0) | 13/75 (17.3)† | 967/4584 (21.1)‡ |
Values are numbers of patients (%) unless otherwise specified. aPatients without myocardial infarction (MI) at follow-up and patients who were not matched controls. bNo cardiovascular (CV) treatment: one or more of the reported cardiovascular disease (CVD) at baseline (hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart failure or hyperlipoproteinaemia) is not reported as being treated
BMI body mass index, SD standard deviation, CRP C-reactive protein, ESR erythrocyte sedimentation rate, DAS28 disease activity score based on 28 joints, FFbH Hannover Functional Status Questionnaire, COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, csDMARD conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug, bDMARD biologic DMARD, NSAID nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, COX-2 cyclooxygenase-2, NA not applicable. †P < 0.05 for comparison with cases (paired t test or Mc Nemar´s test). ‡P < 0.05 for comparison with cases (unpaired t test or chi-squared test)