Biomarkers and methods for assessing myocardial infarction and serious infection risk in rheumatoid arthritis patients

A method for treating cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a subject with rheumatoid arthritis, the method comprising:

• performing at least one immunoassay on a blood sample from the subject to generate a dataset comprising protein level data for at least two protein markers of the group comprising chitinase 3-like 1 (cartilage glycoprotein-39) (CHI3L1);
• C-reactive protein, pentraxin-related (CRP);
• epidermal growth factor (beta-urogastrone) (EGF);
• interleukin 6 (interferon, beta 2) (IL6);
• leptin (LEP);
• matrix metallopeptidase 1 (interstitial collagenase) (MMP1);
• matrix metallopeptidase 3 (stromelysin 1, progelatinase) (MMP3);
• resistin (RETN);
• serum amyloid A1 (SAA1);
• tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily, member 1A (TNFRSF1A);
• vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM1);
• and, vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA);
• and
• determining a risk score for predicting CVD in the subject by combining with the dataset, one or more clinical parameters and a clinical assessment based on clinical data of a reference group of patients having rheumatoid arthritis to generate an interpretation function, wherein at least 20% of the reference group has comorbidity coronary heart disease (CHD);
• identifying the subject as having the risk score exceeding a threshold;
• and
• administering a therapeutic regimen to the subject comprising one or more of
• administering a therapeutic compound selected from a Disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD), a biologic DMARD, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), and a corticosteroid;
• administering dietary modification and/or supplementation;
• and
• administering bariatric surgical intervention.