Adults who underwent total joint replacement of the hip or knee were not significantly more likely to have atherosclerosis, based on data from 5,170 adults with an average age of 76 years. However, women who had a total joint replacement and hand osteoarthritis were significantly more likely to have atherosclerosis. The results were published online on March 1 in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
In this study, Dr. Helgi Jonsson of the University of Iceland in Reykjavik and colleagues used total joint replacement (TJR) as an indicator of severe osteoarthritis (Ann. Rheum. Dis. 2011 [doi:10.1136/ard.2010.144980]). The study population included 2,195 men and 2,975 women; 539 patients had total joint replacement, including 316 with total hip replacements (THR), 223 with total knee replacements (TKR), and 31 with both hip and knee replacements.
Overall, women who had a joint replacement showed a nonsignificant trend toward increased coronary calcifications and carotid plaques, but no such associations were seen in men. "Apart from marginally increased aortic calcium in women with TKR, there were no statistical differences in those with and without TKR and THR," the researchers noted.
But the researchers saw a significant upward trend in coronary calcifications among women with hand osteoarthritis (HOA). The difference between the average value of women without either TJR or HOA and the women with both TJR and HOA was significant – approximately 10% – for three markers of atherosclerosis: coronary calcium, periventricular white matter hyperintensities, and carotid plaque.
The data were taken from a subset of older patients in the AGES–Reykjavik Study, a population-based study conducted in Iceland.
The results support findings from previous studies suggesting a link between osteoarthritis and atherosclerosis in women, the researchers noted. "We are currently analyzing a number of ‘midlife’ biomarkers and inflammatory markers available from previous visits in the 40-year-long Reykjavik Study in an attempt to clarify this relationship," they said.
The Reykjavik study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program, the Icelandic Heart Association, the Icelandic Parliament, the Icelandic Osteoarthritis Fund, and the University of Iceland Research Fund. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.