Prevalence of airway and parenchymal abnormalities in newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis
- Wilsher, Margaret
- Voight, Louisa
- Milne, David
- Teh, Mark
- Good, Nicola
- Kolbe, John
- Williams, Megan
- Pui, Karen
- Merriman, Tony
- Sidhu, Karishma
- Dalbeth, Nicola
DOIAbstract
SummaryBackgroundPulmonary disease is a well recognised and important extra-articular manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of airway and parenchymal abnormalities in newly diagnosed patients with RA and to correlate these with clinical measures of RA severity and laboratory tests.Methods60 patients with a new (symptom duration <12 months) diagnosis of RA (43 females, 42 European, mean age 54, 33 ever smoker, (17 current) underwent lung function testing and high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scored by two independent radiologists.ResultsEighteen (30%) patients reported respiratory symptoms: dyspnoea (11), cough (11), and wheeze (8). Twelve (20%) patients had physiolog...
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