J INTERN MED: Sleep Disorders and Vascular Reactiveness in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common systemic autoimmune disease characterized by chronic systemic inflammationHalf of RA patients die from cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is thought to be 1.5-2.0 times higher than the general populationPeople with RA also experience sleep deprivation, which in itself is associated with endothelial dysfunction, CVD events, and sudden deathIn a recent study published in Journal of Internal Medicine, an authoritative journal of the field of internal medicine, researchers aim to assess the mechanism and correlation between sleep efficiency and vascular reactiveness in RA patientsstudy as a forward-looking study, the researchers used ACTi charts to assess sleep quality, vascular inflammation, and endothelial function in 18 RA patients, and to assess inflammation by detecting E-selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) and NO levels in the serumThe researchers used the arterial volume tracing method to assess endothelial function18 patients with long-term and persistent active RA (age 57.56 to 13.55 years; 16 female): 8 patients had impaired sleep efficiency and 10 patients had good sleep efficiencyThe baseline diameter of the artery in the sleep disorder is large (0.39 to 0.08 cm vs0.32 to 0.04 cm; p.02)There was a negative correlation between the diameter of the baseline artery and the sleep efficiency (p-0.01) and the NO level (p-0.04)The gradual regression found that the diameter and NO level of the baseline artery can predict sleep efficiency (r2 s 0.543, p-0.01)thus shows that vascular reactive can predict the sleep quality of RA patientsSleep quality may be an independent risk factor for CVD in RA patients