Background:Risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) had been reported in overweight obese compared with normal weight people. More, obesity is associated with high prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in RA. No previous publications have examined the detailed body composition parameters among RA, or its relation to CVD in RA.Objectives:This study looked at the body composition and the body mass index and correlated it with the subclinical cardiovascular disease as manifested by carotid intima media thickness (cIMT).Methods:During 2019, a cross-sectional study was carried out to recruit cases that met the 2010 American College of Rheumatology/EULAR criteria for diagnosis of RA. All the patients were free of cardiovascular and or cerebrovascular disease. Patients with clinical diagnosis of hypertension, diabetes, renal disease, dyslipidemia, thyroid disorder and pregnant female were excluded. None of the participants is smoker or had history of smoking.cMIT ultrasound (US) measures were obtained using a real-time US scanner equipped with a 7.5 MHz linear probe by a single sonographer. Patients underwent a detailed body composition analysis within the same week of the cIMT measurement. The body composition analysis involved assessing the level of total body water, protein, minerals, body fat mass, intra- and extracellular water, basal metabolic rate, waist hip ratio, visceral fat level, obesity degree, bone mineral content, body cell mass, arm and arm muscle circumference, detailed muscle fat analysis, obesity analysis, segmental lean analysis, weight control parameters, and segmental fat analysis.Results:During 2019, 35 female RA patients were recruited that met the inclusion criteria. The mean (SD) of the age was 52 (10) with a minimum of 20 and maximum of 72 years old. The mean (SD) of cIMT was 0.59 (0.098) mm with a minimum of 0 .38 and maximum of 0.87. The mean (SD) of the BMI was 30.7 (7.0) with a minimum of 20 and maximum of 56.9 Kg/m2. Mean systolic blood pressure was 126 (19) with a minimum of 91 and maximum of 140 mmHg. Also, the mean diastolic blood pressure was mmHg 74 (11) with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 96.The correlation of cIMT with the parameters of the body composition in a linear regression analysis showed a positive linear relationship between cIMT and each of the Body fat mass (kg): P=0.045, CI 0.000-0.004), BMI (p=0.029, CI: 0.001, 0 .009), the target weight (p=0.040, CI: 0.000- 0.001), extracellular water (P=0.033, CI: 0.002, 0.034) and bone mineral content (p=0.031, CI: 0.009, 0.192).The Multiple linear regression analysis showed persistence of the relationship between the cIMT and the age of the participants (p=0.049, CI:0.001-0.007) and the BMI (p=0.031, CI: 0.002- 0.032), with R2of the model was 0.38.Conclusion:To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the detailed body composition parameters among RA and found a good correlation with subclinical cardiovascular disease as manifested by cIMT. More research with larger study population is needed to look at the association between body mass index and CVD risk factor in RA.References:[1]Body mass index and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Qin B, Yang M, Fu H, Ma N, Wei T, Tang Q, Hu Z, Liang Y, Yang Z, Zhong R. Arthritis Res Ther. 2015; 17(1): 86. doi: 10.1186/s13075-015-0601-x[2]Body Mass Index and the Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis: An Updated Dose-Response Meta-Analysis. Feng X, Xu X, Shi Y, Liu X, Liu H, Hou H, Ji L, Li Y, Wang W, Wang Y, Li D. Biomed Res Int. 2019; 2019: 3579081. doi: 10.1155/2019/3579081Disclosure of Interests:None declared
Body Composition Indices and Predicted Cardiovascular Disease Risk Profile among Urban Dwellers in Malaysia