We read with great interest the recent report by Farragher et al, describing a study in which the authors confirmed the association of HLA–DRB1 shared epitope (SE) alleles with cardiovascular disease (CVD)–related death in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients independent of autoantibody status (1). The authors claim that their study is the first to show that HLA–DRB1 genotype predicts CVD mortality in patients with inflammatory polyarthritis (IP), including RA, recruited from primary care settings. However, in February 2007 we reported, in Arthritis & Rheumatism (Arthritis Care & Research), the contribution of epidemiologic features, clinical features, routine laboratory markers of inflammation, and HLA–DRB1 alleles to CVD mortality in a series of patients with RA who were followed up prospectively at a single referral center in Spain (2). In our cohort, CVD mortality and CV events were associated with chronic inflammation and HLA–DRB1*04 SE alleles, in particular with HLA–DRB1*0404. CVD mortality, adjusted for age at disease onset and sex, was associated with chronic inflammation as determined by C-reactive protein (CRP) levels (hazard ratio [HR] 1.14, P < 0.001) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (HR 1.05, P = 0.003). Moreover, RA patients with HLA–DRB1*04 SE alleles were at increased risk of CVD mortality (HR 4.15, P = 0.030); this risk was particularly pronounced among those who were DRB1*0404 positive (HR 6.65, P = 0.002) (2).