Relapsing polychondritis: prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and its risk factors, and general disease features according to gender

Publication date: Available online 15 March 2017 Source:Revista Brasileira de Reumatologia (English Edition) Author(s): Pablo Arturo Olivo Pallo, Maurício Levy-Neto, Rosa Maria Rodrigues Pereira, Samuel Katsuyuki Shinjo The comorbidities in relapsing polychondritis have been scarcely described in the literature. Moreover, apart from a few relapsing polychondritis epidemiological studies, no studies specifically addressing relapsing polychondritis distribution according to gender are available. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were: (a) to analyze the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and its risk factors in a series of patients with relapsing polychondritis; (b) to determine the influence of gender on relapsing polychondritis. A cross-sectional tertiary single center study evaluating 30 relapsing polychondritis cases from 1990 to 2016 was carried out. To compare comorbidities, 60 healthy individuals matched for age-, gender-, ethnicity- and body mass index were recruited. The mean age of relapsing polychondritis patients was 49.0±12.4 years, the median disease duration 6.0 years, and 70% were women. A higher frequency of arterial hypertension (53.3% vs. 23.3%; p =0.008) and diabetes mellitus (16.7% vs. 3.3%; p =0.039) was found in the relapsing polychondritis group, compared to the control group. As an additional analysis, patients were compared according to gender distribution (9 men vs. 21 women). The clinical disease onset features were comparable...
Source: Revista Brasileira de Reumatologia - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: research