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Abstract
Among 171125 participants with a measure of arterial stiffness at baseline, chronic inflammatory disorders (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disorders) were associated with a 14% increase in the mean arterial stiffness. The findings further indicated a dose-response relationship between arterial stiffness with tertiles of inflammatory biomarkers. For instance, the mean arterial stiffness increased from 11% within the first tertile of leukocytes count to 17% in the second tertile, and 21% in the third tertile. The findings support the use of a stiffness index as means to stratify people with inflammatory disorders according to their potential risk for future CVD events. This suggestion, however, would benefit from future investigations into predictive value of the stiffness index for future risk of major CVD events across different population subgroups.