Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic, inflammatory autoimmune disease, primarily affecting the musculoskeletal system, but also other systems which include the cardiovascular system. Current therapy of the disease is able to achieve remission, with a slowdown or prevention of significant damage in the vast majority of patients.
The crucial moment seems a timely initiation of disease-modifying drugs and the achievement of sustained remission or at least low activity of the disease. The most significant cardiovascular aspect of rheumatoid arthritis is the acceleration of atherosclerotic changes as a result of general and rheumatoid-arthritis-specific risk factors.
The cardiovascular risk in RA patients is about 1.5 times higher than in the general population and needs to be monitored and treated in a timely manner.