No abstract

Five hundred men and 500 women, aged 40 or over, with rheumatoid arthrntis, together with a control population matched for age and sex, were observed over 10 years. During that time 352 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (208 men, 144 women) and 221 controls (148 men, 73 women) died. The overall mortality was significantly higher (p<0-0001) in both men and women with rheumatoid arthritis than in the controls.Infections and cardiovascular and renal diseases (especially amyloidosis) appeared to be the main causes of death in rheumatoid arthritis.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 500 men and 500 women, aged 40 years and over, together with a control population matched by age and sex were followed up with respect to cause-specific mortality over a 10-year period. The overall mortality was significantly higher in both men and women with RA than in the controls. A statistically significant increase in mortality from all cardiovascular diseases (p < 0.001) and cardiac diseases (p = 0.004) was observed in men with RA but not in women with RA compared to corresponding controls. No difference in mortality from cerebrovascular diseases was observed between RA patients and controls.

SUMMARY Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 500 men and 500 women, aged 40 years and over, together with a control population matched by age and sex, were observed over a 10 year period. The overall mortality was significantly higher in both men and women with rheumatoid arthritis than in the controls due to an excess mortality from infections and cardiovascular and renal diseases. During the follow up 31 patients with RA (12 male, 19 female) and one male control subject died from amyloidosis and 42 RA patients (19 male, 23 female) and one male control from renal diseases. The most important causes of renal deaths were chronic nephritis and renal infections.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 500 males and 500 females, aged 40 years or over, and an age- and sex-matched control population were observed over a 3-year period. During the follow-up, 122 RA patients and 69 controls had died. The most common causes of death in RA patients were cardiovascular diseases (57 patients), renal failure (27 patients), infections (19 patients), and malignant neoplasms (11 patients); in the controls, the respective data are: cardiovascular diseases (35 people), malignant neoplasms (21 people), accidents (7 people), and infections (5 people).