TRACE RA Trial

Taken from NRAS magazine, Spring 2010

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) increases the risk of heart disease (mainly heart attack and stroke). This may be due to the inflammation causing damage to blood vessels.

The TRACE RA trial (TRial of Atorvastatin for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Events in Rheumatoid Arthritis) is a unique study and should answer an extremely important question. Statins have been proven to reduce cardiac events in at-risk populations due to their cholesterol-lowering properties and also possibly through an anti-inflammatory effect.  RA patients have previously been mostly excluded from statin trials and so it is unclear whether this benefit occurs in this patient group. TRACE RA hopes to answer this question and, with the additional information being collected, will provide valuable insight into how to direct future research projects in RA.   

The TRACE RA study has recruited more than 1600 patients which is the largest number of patients ever entered into an Arthritis Research Campaign (arc) funded trial. Whilst this is commendable and the TRACE RA team are very grateful, the challenge still remains to recruit 4000 patients by March 2011.  

This 5 year trial, jointly funded by the arc and the British Heart Foundation, is led by Professors George Kitas (Dudley), Jill Belch (Dundee) and Deborah Symmons (Manchester).  There are now 105 Rheumatology departments across the UK actively involved in recruiting patients.

To participate in the study, patients are required to either:
1) Have RA and be at least 50 years old
    or
2) Be under 50 years old but have had RA for over 10 years.

Patients who are already on a statin, or whose GP thinks they should be on a statin, will not be able to take part.
 
Further information is available at http://www.dgoh.nhs.uk/tracera or from the Trial Manager, Hawys Williams, on 0161 275 5639 or hawys.williams@manchester.ac.uk