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Background: This study aimed to evaluate cardiac involvement during active inflammation in 2 pathophysi-
ologically different diseases, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and the change in
cardiac involvement with suppression of inflammation after effective treatment.
Methods: The study involved 30 newly diagnosed, active RA and 31 active AS patients in need of biologi-
cal treatment. The patients were evaluated by the same cardiologist using pulse wave Doppler and tissue
Doppler echocardiography at the beginning of the study and after 3 months of treatment. Myocardial per-
formance index (MPI) was obtained by dividing the sum of isovolumetric relaxation time and isovolumetric
contraction time, calculated from the recorded Doppler tracing, by ejection time (ET) from the same tracing
was calculated separately for both ventricles.
Results: It was found that diastolic dysfunction was present at the time of diagnosis and did not improve
after treatment, despite regression in inflammatory values and joint findings. In the pre-treatment period,
MPI was found to be higher than the normal value range in both groups. The MPI was 0.5 ± 0.07 for RA
patients and 0.51 ± 0.1 for AS patients. No significant difference was found between the 2 groups before
treatment (P=.697). In the post-treatment evaluation, no significant difference was found in RA and AS
patients compared to pretreatment.
Conclusion: Inflammation-induced cardiac involvement may develop in both RA and AS patients, despite
their different pathophysiologic pathways. Longer follow-up periods are necessary for the improvement
of inflammation-induced diastolic dysfunction and MPI values compared to joint findings used in activation
parameters.
Cite this article as: Şahin A, Doğru A, Karabacak M. Evaluation of the cardiac effects of inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis. Eurasian J Med. 2025, 57(2), 0777, doi: 10.5152/eurasianjmed.2025.25777.