Figure 1

Comparable new carotid plaque formation in rheumatoid arthritis patients and matched controls. New carotid plaque formation during a mean (± SD) of 3.4 ± 0.3 years in 35 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients matched 1:1 with 35 'healthy' subjects for all traditional cardiovascular risk factors at baseline and at the end of follow-up. Although at baseline almost twice as many RA patients as controls presented with at least one carotid plaque, the number with new carotid atherosclerotic plaque formation was similar to that of controls (P = 0.743).