Death rate and causes of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 500 males and 500 females, aged 40 years or over, and an age- and sex-matched control population were observed over a 3-year period. During the follow-up, 122 RA patients and 69 controls had died. The most common causes of death in RA patients were cardiovascular diseases (57 patients), renal failure (27 patients), infections (19 patients), and malignant neoplasms (11 patients); in the controls, the respective data are: cardiovascular diseases (35 people), malignant neoplasms (21 people), accidents (7 people), and infections (5 people).