Cardiovascular disease in the QUEST-RA study, 10 years later

Excerpt

The Quantitative Patient Questionnaires in Standard Monitoring of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (QUEST-RA) multicenter cohort was launched by Theodore Pincus and Tuulikki Sokka in 2005, encompassing more than 9000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from 34 countries. In those years, there was a great interest in the comorbidities associated with RA, particularly those of a cardiovascular (CV) nature. I was especially interested in analyzing this data in the QUEST-RA database and fortunately enlisted the statistical collaboration of Miguel A. Descalzo and Loreto Carmona [1]. At that time, although methotrexate was known to reduce both mortality and CV events in RA, there remained uncertainty about the effect of TNF blockers. …