Cardiovascular risk management in rheumatoid arthritis: A large gap to close

OBJECTIVE: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) portends significant cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. We therefore determined how often rheumatologists screened for and managed cardiovascular risk factors in RA patients, and the barriers to doing so. METHODS: We examined 300 patient charts from 10 university-affiliated rheumatology practices, to ascertain if they had been screened, treated and/or referred over a 3-year period. We subsequently …