The risk of acute coronary syndrome in rheumatoid arthritis in relation to tumour necrosis factor inhibitors and the risk in the general population: a national cohort study

Table 2 Crude incidence rates for acute coronary syndrome in study cohorts ^a

	TNFi-exposed RA patients (N = 7,704)		Biologic-naïve RA patients (N = 23,112)		General population referents (N = 38,520)
Risk window ^b	ACS/person-years	Crude IR	ACS/person-years	Crude IR	ACS/person-years	Crude IR
Ever exposed to TNFi	221/32,621	6.8 (5.9 to 7.7)	680/75,268	9.0 (8.4 to 9.7)	602/165,603	3.6 (3.4 to 3.9)
Actively on TNFi	137/24,055	5.7 (4.8 to 6.7)	476/55,654	8.6 (7.8 to 9.4)	394/118,801	3.3 (3.0 to 3.7)
Short-term exposure	74/11,671	6.3 (5.0 to 8.0)	316/35,204	9.0 (8.0 to 10.0)	216/66,404	3.3 (2.8 to 3.7)

^aACS, Acute coronary syndrome; IR, Incidence ratio; RA, Rheumatoid arthritis; TNFi, Tumour necrosis factor inhibitor. ‘Crude IR’ is the incidence per 1,000 person-years expressed as incidence rate (95% confidence interval). ^b‘Ever exposed’ is all follow-up time after exposure was evaluated, ‘Actively on TNFi’ includes follow-up time until reported stop date for the TNFi plus 90 days and corresponding date for referents and ‘Short-term exposure’ is defined as actively on TNFi with follow-up limited to 2 years.

ISSN: 1478-6362