Trial aims to cut stroke deaths

People in Staffordshire who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis are being invited to take part in a major new trial to find out if taking a particular drug reduces the number of patients dying of heart attacks and strokes.

Rheumatoid arthritis patients have an increased risk of dying from cardio-vascular complications but few are routinely prescribed the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins. The study is inviting 20 patients from Cannock's Cannock Chase Hospital to join people from around the UK.

The five-year £1.1million trial is funded by leading medical research charities the Arthritis Research Campaign and the British Heart Foundation.

Doctors running the trial said that if, as expected, statins were shown to be effective in reducing cardio-vascular deaths in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), most patients with this condition should be put on the drugs as a matter of course.

Head of the local research team rheumatologist Dr Diarmud Mulherin, from Cannock Chase, said: "It has been known for some time that there is a link between rheumatoid arthritis and cardio-vascular mortality.

"This may be in large part due to early and more advanced blood vessel damage due to high levels of inflammation in RA.

"Statins lead to a reduction of cardiovascular death rates by reducing cholesterol and possibly inflammation.

"We therefore need to know if statins can reduce the risk of cardiovascular death in RA patients by 10 to 15 per cent, and the relative risk by 35 to 40 per cent."

Statins have been routinely given to people who have had heart attacks to lower the risk of them suffering a second for the past few years.

Another knock-on effect of the trial would be a greater awareness on patients changing their lifestyles to reduce the risks.

"One of the problems is that many patients with high cholesterol and blood vessel damage are unaware of it until they have a heart attack or stroke," added Dr Mulherin.