Pulmonary involvement in early rheumatoid arthritis patients

Pulmonary involvement in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is common and can be due to the disease itself as well as to the therapies used to treat it. The purpose of this study was to disclose the pulmonary involvement in early RA patients not more than 2 years disease duration using the computed tomography (CT) as well as the pulmonary function tests as ways of pulmonary involvement assessment. Forty patients aged 37.6 +/- 10.3 with early rheumatoid arthritis not more than 2 years of disease duration were recruited for the study. All patients were assessed clinically for their RA with DAS28, which was utilized for disease activity determination. Ten percent of our patients were found to be clinically involved by interstitial lung disease (ILD), where 27% have abnormal HRCT finding and 32.5% with abnormal PFT. Predilection for clinically manifest ILD was evident in active RA patients with high DAS28 score, seropositive RA patients, and in patients receiving steroids and anti-TNF alpha therapy. ILD occurs early in the course of RA, with more predilection for clinically active RA disease.