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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory condition associated with increased cardiovascular risk. This is not fully explained by traditional risk factors, but direct vascular inflammation and aortic stiffening may play a role. We hypothesized that patients with RA exhibit aortic inflammation, which can be reversed with anti-tumor necrosis factor-α therapy and correlates with aortic stiffness reduction.

Aortic inflammation was quantified in 17 patients with RA, before and after 8 weeks of anti-tumor necrosis factor-α therapy by using ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography with computed tomography coregistration. Concomitantly, 34 patients with stable cardiovascular disease were imaged as positive controls at baseline. Aortic fluorodeoxyglucose target-to-background ratios (TBRs) and aortic pulse wave velocity were assessed. RA patients had higher baseline …