World Journal of Cardiovascular Diseases, 2023, 13, 313-326 https://www.scirp.org/journal/wjcd ISSN Online: 2164-5337 ISSN Print: 2164-5329 DOI: 10.4236/wjcd.2023.136029 Jun. 30, 2023 313 World Journal of Cardiovascular Diseases Increased Risk of Arterial Stiffness in Rhumatoid Arthritis Patients in a Sub-Saharan African Setting Asongwed Achu Reid 1* , Joshua Njimbuc Walinjom 1* , Collins Chenwi 1 , Eho Emerentia 1 , Achu Achiri Roosevelt 1 , Daniel Tchamdeu 1 , Jan Rene Nkeck 1 , Marie Solange Doualla 1,2# , Daniel Lemogoum 3# 1 Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon 2 Medical Unit, Douala General Hospital, Douala, Cameroon 3 Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium Abstract Background: Analysis of arterial stiffness (AS) is a good marker of early arte- rial disease and an important determinant of cardiovascular risk, independent of other traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CfPWV) is the gold standard to evaluate arterial stiffness. There is evidence that patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have a higher arterial stiffness than their age-matched healthy counterparts and thus have higher cardiovascular (CV) risk. However, data on arterial stiffness in African rheu- matoid arthritis patients is scarce. Objectives: To determine the patterns of arterial stiffness in rheumatoid arthritis patients in a sub-Saharan African set- ting, using CfPWV and Augmentation index (AIx). Method: We conducted a case-control study, at the Douala general hospital over four months (February to May 2018) on 63 subjects among which 31 RA patients matched for age and sex with 32 healthy subjects. AIx and CfPWV were determined non-invasively by radial pulse wave analysis and carotid femoral wave analy- sis respectively, using a sphygmocor Atcor device (SphygmoCor, PWV Medical, Sydney, Australia). Results: The mean age of RA patients was 47 ± 14 years with most of them being females (n = 26, 83.9%). CfPWV was sig- nificantly higher in RA patients compared to the control group (mean: 8.85 ± 2.1 vs 7.45 ± 1.38; p ≤ 0.01) as well as was AIx (Median: 33 [26 - 43] vs 26 [20 - 31]; p = 0.01). RA (OR: 6.105; 95% CI: 1.52 - 24.54; p < 0.01), Diabetes (OR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.14 - 5.17; p = 0.05), elevated CRP levels (OR: 4.01; 95% CI: *Corresponding authors. # Senior authors to this work. How to cite this paper: Reid, A.A., Wa- linjom, J.N., Chenwi, C., Emerentia, E., Roosevelt, A.A., Tchamdeu, D., Nkeck, J.R., Doualla, M.S. and Lemogoum, D. (2023) Increased Risk of Arterial Stiffness in Rhu- matoid Arthritis Patients in a Sub-Saharan African Setting. World Journal of Cardi- ovascular Diseases, 13, 313-326. https://doi.org/10.4236/wjcd.2023.136029 Received: February 25, 2023 Accepted: June 27, 2023 Published: June 30, 2023 Copyright © 2023 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access