Résumé
Introduction: osteoarthritis is the leading cause of disability in the elderly. Digital involvement is common and, due to its non-weight-bearing nature, suggests a systemic origin. This phenotype of so-called metabolic osteoarthritis could be triggered by systemic inflammation related to obesity, diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, ageing, changes in the microbiota and oestrogen deficiency. An increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been found in these patients with digital osteoarthritis in several studies, suggesting a causal link between the two diseases. The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of digital osteoarthritis on arterial stiffness by evaluating the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), which is an independent risk factor for the occurrence of CV events. Materials and Methods: in this prospective cross-sectional study carried out in a single blind, 82 patients aged 45 to 65 were divided into 2 groups (with or without digital osteoarthritis), with matching for age and sex. Patients with severe or uncontrolled CV pathology were excluded, as were those with inflammatory rheumatism. A multivariate linear regression analysis adjusted for age and SCORE score was performed. Results: regardless of age and sex, patients with digital osteoarthritis were more frequently overweight (p = 0.04), had a higher abdominal circumference (p = 0.006), were more sedentary (p = 0.09), had a higher SCORE (1.35 ± 1.12 versus 0.85 ± 0.73; p = 0.04), and were more frequently on statins (p = 0.01). They had an average of 23 affected joints (20.00; 25.00). A majority of patients had erosive damage (54%). The evaluation of arterial stiffness by measuring the carotid-femoral PWV did not show any significant difference between patients suffering from digital osteoarthritis compared to unaffected patients (7.70 m/s against 7.20 m/s; p = 0.08). After adjustment for the SCORE, a trend towards an increase in the PWV of approximately 8 m/s for each 1-point increase in the SCORE was found in patients with osteoarthritis, but the results are not significant (p = 0.14). Conclusions: our study did not reveal any significant increase in arterial stiffness or worsening of other CV parameters in patients with digital osteoarthritis. However, these patients do appear to have more CV risk factors with a more frequent metabolic phenotype.