Progression of coronary artery atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis: comparison with participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Introduction: In cross-sectional studies, patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have higher coronary artery calcium (CAC) than controls. However, their rate of progression of CAC and the predictors of CAC progression have heretofore remained unknown. Methods: Incidence and progression of CAC were compared in 155 patients with RA and 835 control participants. The association of demographic characteristics, traditional cardiovascular risk factors, RA disease characteristics and selected inflammatory markers with incidence and progression of CAC were evaluated. Results: The incidence rate of newly detected CAC was 8.2/100 person-years in RA and 7.3/100 person-years in non-RA control subjects [IRR 1.1 (0.7-1.8)]. RA patients who developed newly detectable CAC were older (59±7 vs. 55±6 years old, p=0.03), had higher triglyceride levels (137±86 vs. 97±60 mg/dL, p=0.03), and higher systolic blood pressure (129±17 vs. 117±15 mm Hg, p=0.01) compared to those who did not develop incident CAC. Differences in blood pressure and triglyceride levels remained significant after adjustment for age (p<=0.05). RA patients with any CAC at baseline had a median rate of yearly progression of 21 (7–62) compared to 21 (5–70) Agatston units in controls. No statistical differences between RA progressors and RA non-progressors were observed for inflammatory markers or for RA disease characteristics. Conclusions: The incidence and progression of CAC did not differ between RA and non-RA participants. In patients with RA, incident CAC was associated with older age, higher triglyceride levels, and higher blood pressure, but not with inflammatory markers or RA disease characteristics

THE THEORY OF THE NON-RESONANT RAMAN EFFECT AND VIBRATIONAL CORRECTIONS TO SECOND-ORDER PROPERTIES

Author Institution: City University of New York at Queens CollegeThe theory of Rayleigh and Raman intensities far from resonance has been reinvestigated. A closely related problem, the effect of nuclear motion on the optical second-order properties, has been considered as well. The correct simplification of the Kramers-Heisenberg dispersion equation is that proposed, though not justified, by Pleaczek, in which diagonal and transition matrix elements of the electric polarizability tensor are computed. Higher-order terms are formally shown here to be small and various correction terms leading to the exact dispersion equation, within the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, have been evaluated. Representative calculations on $H_{2}^{+}$, which is both exactly soluble and for which the parallel and perpendicular components represent highly and less polarizable molecules, respectively, are given for transitions between all bound vibrational states. A complete test of the approximate theory is thus made, including Herzberg-Teller expansions