Association between clinical, serological, functional and radiological findings and ventilatory distribution heterogeneity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the involvement of the pulmonary interstitium can lead to structural changes in the small airways and alveoli, leading to reduced airflow and maldistribution of ventilation. The single-breath nitrogen washout (SBN2W) test is a measure of the ventilatory distribution heterogeneity and evaluates the small airways. This study aimed to find out which clinical, serological, functional and radiological findings are useful to identify RA patients with pathological values of the phase III slope (SIII) measured by the SBN2W test.

Does the nitrogen single-breath washout test contribute to detecting pulmonary involvement in rheumatoid arthritis? A pilot study.

Objective: There has been growing interest in studying small airway disease through measures of ventilation distribution, thanks to the resurgence of the nitrogen single-breath washout (NSBW) test. Therefore, this study evaluated the contribution of the NSBW test to the detection of pulmonary involvement in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Results: Twenty-one patients with RA underwent clinical evaluation, pulmonary function tests (PFTs), including the N2BW test, and computed tomography (CT).