METHOD FOR EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF ATHEROSCLEROTIC VASCULAR LESIONS IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

摘要

A method for the early diagnosis of the atherosclerotic vascular lesions in the patients with rheumatoid arthritis comprises the examination of sonographic and clinical features of the atherosclerosis. In addition, the complex of the clinical manifestations of the arthritis is analyzed. Such manifestations in combination with the conventional risk factors of cardiovascular pathology and the impaired endothelial regulation (less than 8.5% in endothelium-dependent vasodilatation and less than 13.5% in endothelium-independent vasodilatation) are pragmatically significant criteria of the development and progression of atherosclerosis of the blood vessels in this category of the patients.