CRP and rheumatoid arthritis: Since 1997, a correlation has been identified between inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP) and cardiovascular risk in patients regardless of blood lipid levels (Ridker et al., 1997), and increased risk of CVD has long been noted in patients with existing inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (Hansildaar et al., 2021; Agca et al., 2022; Conrad et al., 2022).