Increased arterial wall inflammation in patients with ankylosing spondylitis is reduced by statin therapy

摘要

Background Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease with involvement of axial and sacroiliac joints. In addition, patients with AS have increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which might be attributed to enhanced inflammatory activity of the arterial wall. In the present study, we compared the level of carotid arterial wall inflammation in patients with AS with healthy controls using F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18-FDG) positron emission tomography with CT. As arterial wall inflammation is reduced by statin therapy, we subsequently assessed the effect of 3-month statin therapy on arterial wall inflammation in AS.