Erlandsson MC, et al. - Because low insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 1 is often associated with inflammation, researchers performed this longitudinal observational analysis to gauge the possible link between serum levels of IGF1 and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). They used the Framingham algorithm to estimate a CVD risk in 184 female patients with RA (mean age of 52 years) and in 132 female patients following ischemic stroke (mean age of 56 years) with no rheumatic disease. In female patients with RA, the occurrence of early CVD events was preceded by low serum IGF1. Also, low serum IGF1 was identified as a predictor of the development of early CVD events in female patients with RA. The factors that were shown to have a crucial contribution to IGF1-related CVD events included hypertension and aberrant IGF1 receptor signaling.