AUTHOR=Nie Qiong , Luo Qiang , Yan Wei , Zhang Tongtong , Wang Han , Wu Jing 

TITLE=Rheumatoid arthritis and coronary atherosclerosis: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cardiovascular-medicine/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1033644

DOI=10.3389/fcvm.2023.1033644

ISSN=2297-055X

ABSTRACT=The relationship between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and coronary atherosclerosis is widely concerned, but the causality has not been clear in observational studies. We performed two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study to assess the causal association between RA and coronary atherosclerosis. Subsequently, we mainly conducted MR analysis using the inverse variance weighted (IVW) approach. Weighted median, MR-Egger regression and maximum likelihood were conducted as sensitivity analyses for supplementary analysis. Furthermore, we performed the MR-Egger intercept, MR-PRESSO, Cochran's Q test, and “Leave-one-out” to assess the levels of pleiotropy and heterogeneity. IVW result showed a positive link between genetic predisposition to RA and increased relative risk of coronary atherosclerosis (OR: 1.0021, 95%CI 1.0011-1.0031, P < 0.05). The result was confirmed by the weighted median method (OR: 1.0028, 95%CI 1.0014-1.0042, P < 0.05), MR-Egger regression (OR: 1.0031, 95%CI 1.0012-1.0049, P < 0.05) and maximum likelihood (OR: 1.0021, 95%CI 1.0011-1.0030, P < 0.05). Multivariate MR also reached a consistent conclusion. In addition, MR-Egger intercept (P = 0.20) and MR-PRESSO (P = 0.06) did not provide evidence of horizontal pleiotropy. Meanwhile, the results of Cochran's Q test (P = 0.05) and “Leave-one-out” failed to detect significant heterogeneity. The result of the two-sample MR analysis found genetic evidence to support the positive causal association between RA and coronary atherosclerosis, suggesting that active intervention for RA may reduce the incidence of coronary atherosclerosis.