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Clinical Advances in Cardio-Rheumatology
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Clinical Advances in Cardio-Rheumatology

A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Cardiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2025 | Viewed by 303

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Sophie I. Mavrogeni

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
University Research Institute of Maternal and Child Health and Precision Medicine and UNESCO Chair in Adolescent Health Care, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece
Interests: clinical cardiology; autoimmune diseases; non-ischemic cardiomyopathy; cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Autoimmune diseases (ADs) affect almost one in ten people, and this number is increasing over time for individual diseases. A recent study in the UK found that ADs were commonly mutually associated. Although there has recently been significant progress in the treatment of the systemic manifestations of ADs, patients with ADs still present an increased risk of CVD. An increased risk of CVD in ADs is seen for every individual CVD and increases progressively with the number of ADs present and with younger patients’ age. Systemic sclerosis, Addison’s disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, and type 1 diabetes present the highest CVD risk.

Cardiac imaging and specific new echocardiographic techniques, i.e., positron emission tomography (PET) and cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), have proven to be of great value for better risk stratification and treatment evaluation in autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARDs). Recently, we published a position paper on the role of the evaluation of ARDs and the “show keeps going” approach across special Cardio-Rheumatology departments in both Europe and the USA. This Special Issue of JCM will be dedicated to ARDs and will support the creation of the subspecialty of Cardio-Rheumatology through showcasing publications on the evaluation and treatment of CVD in ARDs.

Taking into consideration the atypical clinical presentation and the high mortality rate of CVD in ARDs, we are launching this Special Issue in order to contribute to better CVD risk assessment and treatment evaluation and promote new ideas for future research. Furthermore, we hope that this Special Issue will motivate the scientific community to establish multicenter studies on CVD in ARDs and promote the establishment of the subspecialty of Cardio-Rheumatology internationally.

Dr. Sophie I. Mavrogeni
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cardio-rheumatology
  • autoimmune diseases
  • cardiac imaging
  • cardiovascular disease
  • autoimmune rheumatic diseases

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

10 pages, 230 KiB  
Article
Cardiac Edema Is Associated with White Matter Hyperintensities in Patients with Inflammatory Arthritides: A Combined Brain/Heart MRI Study
by George Markousis-Mavrogenis, Aliki Venetsanopoulou, Ioannis Ntalas, Ioannis Pagounis, Christina Naka, Dionisis Toliopoulos, Dimitrios Apostolou, Paraskevi Voulgari and Sophie I. Mavrogeni
J. Clin. Med. 2025, 14(11), 3726; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14113726 - 26 May 2025
Viewed by 220
Abstract
Background: Inflammatory arthritides (IAs) are systemic inflammatory syndromes that can affect diverse body tissues. Central nervous system involvement has been reported, but is considered rare. We investigated the relationship between cardiac and subclinical brain involvement in patients with IAs. Methods: We [...] Read more.
Background: Inflammatory arthritides (IAs) are systemic inflammatory syndromes that can affect diverse body tissues. Central nervous system involvement has been reported, but is considered rare. We investigated the relationship between cardiac and subclinical brain involvement in patients with IAs. Methods: We consecutively enrolled 25 patients with IAs and 31 as disease controls with non-autoimmune cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) reporting cardiac symptoms. Each participant underwent combined brain/heart magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We also recruited 25 consecutive asymptomatic healthy controls without CVDs who underwent brain MRI. MRI scans were performed on a 1.5 T system. We investigated cardiac function/tissue characterization and the presence/localization of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). Results: All groups had similar ages (p = 0.267), and 16 (64%) patients with IAs vs. 7 (23%) disease controls vs. 16 (64%) healthy controls were women (p = 0.001). WMHs were detected in ≥1 brain area in 15 (60%) patients with IAs and 16 (53%) disease controls (p = 0.620). WMHs were significantly less prevalent amongst healthy controls [two (8%)] compared to patients with IAs (p < 0.001). Amongst patients with IAs, an increased cardiac T2 ratio was associated with an increased probability of WMH occurrence [OR per 0.1 unit change (95% CI): 1.29 (1.05–1.59), p = 0.016], while a higher cardiac T2 ratio (per 0.1 unit change) and extracellular volume fraction (ECV) were associated with higher WMH lesion burdens [β (95% CI): 0.12 (0.03–0.20), p = 0.008 and 0.25 (0.00–0.49), p = 0.049, respectively]. Conclusions: Patients with IAs and cardiac symptoms had significantly higher subclinical WMH burdens compared to age/sex-matched healthy controls. Myocardial edema was associated with a greater WMH burden, potentially suggesting shared pathophysiologic substrates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Clinical Advances in Cardio-Rheumatology)
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