Echocardiographic evaluation of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Mode M echocardiograms in 34 consecutive adult RA patients revealed no significant differences with the findings obtained in 18 normal controls of similar age and sex. One patient had an 11 mm separation between the anterior chest wall and the right ventricle suggestive of a 350 ml pericardial effusion but had no corresponding findings between the posterior left ventricular wall and the pericardium. In this patient the electrocardiogram showed low voltage and the chest roentgenogram an enlarged cardiac silhouette. The differences between these series and other series reported in the literature may reflect ethnic and therapeutic differences between the respective RA populations.