ABSTRACT
An important relationship exists between certain rheumatic disorders, dyslipidemia, and increased frequency of atherosclerotic vascular disease, especially coronary heart disease (CHD) (1,3,8,27,36,38,43,54,59,60,63,65,67,75,79,86,88). Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are the most widely studied disorders in regard to CHD. Increased CHD risk is related to associated hypertension, dyslipidemia, renal disease/nephrotic syndrome, vascular inflammation, presence of procoagulant proteins, and use of proatherogenic therapies. Treatment of rheumatic diseases often includes medications that cause alterations and lipids and lipoproteins. To what degree the increased risk of CHD is related to the disease process itself or its treatment is uncertain. However, adverse changes in lipids contribute substantially to CHD risk in general. Therefore, benefits of aggressive lipid lowering in these high-risk groups may be applicable to patients with rheumatic disorders who are at increased risk for CHD.
