Sex and Cardiovascular Involvement in Inflammatory Joint Diseases

Abstract

The term inflammatory joint disease (IJD) encompasses a group of chronic conditions with predominant joint involvement. They share an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) complications. However, the implication of the sex in the risk of CV disease in IJD has not been specifically addressed. The aim of this work is to assess the influence of sex on the clinical expression of CV manifestations associated to IJD. With this objective, an update of the current knowledge of the sex influence on CV disease in patients with IJD was conducted. A PubMed database search of the most relevant literature on this topic was performed mainly based on studies published in English over the last 10 years. Although most studies on IJD were not specifically designed to address sex differences regarding CV complications, it seems that men with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at higher risk of pericarditis, ischemic heart disease, heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (EF), and CV mortality than women with RA. In contrast, HF with preserved EF and diastolic dysfunction is more frequent in women with RA. Men with ankylosing spondylitis present more frequently disorders of the conduction system and aortic valvulopathy than women. A limited number of studies addressed CV differences according to sex in psoriatic arthritis. Although there are some differences according to sex in the clinical expression of CV complications in patients with IJD, much research is still needed to better identify the implication of sex in the risk of CV disease in these patients.

Keywords: Ankylosing spondylitis; Cardiovascular morbidity; Gender; Heart disease; Psoriatic arthritis; Rheumatoid arthritis.