Anti-TNF modulation reduces myocardial inflammation and improves cardiovascular function in systemic rheumatic diseases

•We hypothesized that anti-TNF therapy would result in an improvement in myocardial and vascular characteristics in patients with IASRDs.•We show that CMR can detect subclinical cardiovascular involvement and track response to anti-TNF therapy in asymptomatic RA, AS and PsA patients.•Anti-TNF therapy improves strain, diastolic strain rate, aortic stiffness, and myocardial edema (T2-weighted, T1 and ECV quantification).•While a trend towards improvement in myocardial perfusion was observed, this did not reach statistical significance.•These novel observations were supported by parallel improvements in inflammatory parameters (CRP and ESR) and in disease activity indices.