AB0182 HEMOGLOBIN RATE AS A PREDICTOR OF SUBCLINICAL LEFT VENTRICULAR SYSTOLIC DYSFUNCTION IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Background:The role of rheumatoid arthritis as an ischemic heart disease and heart failure risk factor is well acknowledged even if the physiopathological pathways are still debated. The effect of anemia on myocardial deformation has already been established and a hemoglobin level below 9g/dL was associated with a significantly lower global longitudinal strain (GLS) patients with no history of CVD or chronic inflammatory diseases.[1]Objectives:In the present study, we looked into the effect of anemia and hemoglobin on the myocardial impairement in RA patients.Methods:We conducted a monocentric cross-sectional study between march 2019 and september 2019 on 36 RA patients without any history of cardiovascular disease and non-altered left ventricular ejection fraction in the outpatient population of the rheumatology department of the military hospital of Tunis matched with 36 healthy control subjects. Both groups underwent conventional echocardiography and STE to measure GLS; subclinical left ventricular systolic dysfunction was defined as a GLS > −18%, and a complete blood cell count; anemia was defined as Hemoglobin levels < 12 g/dL for women and < 13 g/dL for men.Results:Myocardial deformation study revealed that rheumatoid arthritis patients had a significantly worse GLS than healthy controls (18.99±2.81% vs 20.42±1.33%; P=.015). We also observed that third of the RA patients had subclinical left ventricular systolic dysfunction.In our report 36% of RA patients were anemic. In our univariate analysis anemia was found to be significantly correlated with GLS (r=−0.368, P=.027) and hemoglobin was found to be the best predictor of subclinical LVSD in our ROC curve analysis (AUC=0.752, 95% CI: 0.577-0.927, P=.02). In our multivariate analysis anemia was the only factor that was independently related to subclinical LVSD (OR: 11.39, 95% CI: 1.57-82.89, P=.016).Figure 1.ROC curve analysis for Hemoglobin as a predictor of subclinical left ventricular systolic dysfunctionConclusion:To our knowledge, this is the first study to look into the relationship between GLS and anemia among RA patients, and now it is safe to say that anemia is yet another added burden on the myocardial function in RA patients that needs to be taken into account when discussing therapeutic action.References:[1]Zhou Q, Shen J, Liu Y, Luo R, Tan B, Li G. Assessment of left ventricular systolic function in patients with iron deficiency anemia by three-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography. Anatol J Cardiol. 2017;18(3):194–9.Disclosure of Interests:None declared