SIGNIFICANCE OF HEART RHYTHM VARIABILITY IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease. Coronary vascular catastrophes are one of the main causes of death in RA. Despite this, a cardiovascular risk assessment procedure that should take into account the clinical and pathogenetic features of RA has not been developed so far. The review considers whether cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) and heart rhythm variability (HRV) are associated with cardiovascular diseases. Much attention is also given to the significance and prevalence of CAN among patients with RA. There is information on the impact of inflammation and RA therapy on the course of CAN and HRV values. The accumulated evidence provides a way of considering HRV as a promising additional method to evaluate the severity of target organ damage, cardiovascular risks, and therapeutic efficacy in patients with RA. However, further investigations are needed to elaborate guidelines for using HRV estimates in RA.