FREQUENCY OF INTERSTITIAL LUNG DISEASE IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of interstitial lung disease (ILD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Department of Pulmonology, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.

Methods: The study was cross sectional for a period of six months from January 2020 till June 2020. conducted in Department of Pulmonology, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. 130 Rheumatoid Arthritis patients (18-70 years) who were diagnosed according to ACR/EULAR 2010 criteria were recruited, with non-probability consecutive sampling. High resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of the chest was performed for all patients and ILD was diagnosed by typical chest imaging characteristics. The data were analyzed in SPSS 26 and chi-square-test was used with p ≤ 0.05 being significant.

Results: The study shows 29 patients (22.3%) were diagnosed with ILD and 101 patients (77.7%) did not have ILD. ILD was more frequent in patients aged 41–70 years (25.0%), males (33.3%), smokers (39.1%), and those with disease duration >5 years (27.6%). The smoking status (p = 0.001) and disease duration (p = 0.006) were statistically significant. Higher ILDs were observed for age and gender, which were not as statistically significant.

Conclusions: The incidence of RA-ILD was 22.3%. ILD was more prevalent in older patients, male patients, smokers and in those with longer disease duration. The results emphasize the importance of early screening and risk stratification of pulmonary involvement in RA, through HRCT in order to minimize pulmonary morbidity and to achieve better outcomes.