Frequency of ILD in patients with rheumatoid arthritis appears substantial
Due to the large number of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who suffer with RA-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD), routine screening is needed to identify pulmonary involvement, according to a study.
In this study, 175 patients with RA with a mean age of 45.3 ± 11.5 years were screened for the presence of ILD using chest X-rays and pulmonary function tests.
Overall, 67.4% (n = 118) of patients were diagnosed with RA-ILD. Patients with a duration of disease ≥5 years had a significantly higher frequency of RA-ILD than patients with a disease duration <5 years (75.9% vs 59.1%, respectively)
Most patients with RA-ILD had usual interstitial pneumonia (62.7%), followed by nonspecific interstitial pneumonitis in 37.3% of patients.
Reference
Iqbal ZU, Khan JA, Hassan MM, et al. Frequency of Interstitial Lung Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Hospital-Based Study. Cureus. 2022;14(10):e30145. doi: 10.7759/cureus.30145. PMID: 36381717; PMCID: PMC9643025.