Screening for preclinical parenchymal lung disease in rheumatoid arthritis.

Objectives: Pulmonary disease is a common extraarticular manifestation of RA associated with increased morbidity and mortality. No current strategies exist for screening this at-risk population for parenchymal lung disease, including emphysema and interstitial lung disease (ILD).

Methods: RA patients without a diagnosis of ILD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease underwent prospective and comprehensive clinical, laboratory, functional and radiological evaluations.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity Predicting Incident Clinically Apparent Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Objective: To evaluate rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity and risk of RA-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD).

Methods: We investigated disease activity and risk of RA-ILD using the Brigham RA Sequential Study (BRASS, 2003-2016). All patients were diagnosed as having RA according to accepted criteria.

Rituximab in the Treatment of Interstitial Lung Disease Associated with Antisynthetase Syndrome: A Multicenter Retrospective Case Review.

Objective: To assess clinical outcomes including imaging findings on computed tomography (CT), pulmonary function testing (PFT), and glucocorticoid (GC) use in patients with the antisynthetase syndrome (AS) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) treated with rituximab (RTX).

Methods: We retrospectively identified all patients at 2 institutions with AS-ILD who were treated with RTX. Baseline demographics, PFT, and chest CT were assessed before and after RTX.

Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Shared Mechanistic and Phenotypic Traits Suggest Overlapping Disease Mechanisms.

The prevalence of clinically evident interstitial lung disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is approximately 10%. An additional 33% of undiagnosed patients have interstitial lung abnormalities that can be detected with high-resolution computed tomography. Rheumatoid arthritis-interstitial lung disease patients have three times the risk of death compared to those with rheumatoid arthritis occurring in the absence of interstitial lung disease, and the mortality related to interstitial lung disease is rising.