RESEARCH - Rheumatoid lung disease

[Guest guest]

The Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society 4:443-448 (2007)

S. Lecture.

Rheumatoid Lung Disease

Excerpt:

Clinical, genetic, and environmental factors have been used to predict

the development of lung disease in RA. Sex influences both the risk as

well as the pattern of organ involvement. Both rheumatoid nodules and

RA-ILD are more commonly seen in men (37, 38). Active or previous

tobacco smoking is an independent risk factor for the development of

RA (39, 40), its severity, and its rheumatoid factor (RF)

seropositivity (41, 42). A mechanistic connection has also been

proposed for a relationship between tobacco smoke, the HLA-DRB1

" shared epitope " (SE), anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibody

(anti-CCP), and the development of RA (43). The combination of a

history of tobacco smoking and the presence of two copies of the

HLA-DR SE genes increased the risk for RA 21-fold compared with the

risk among nonsmokers carrying no SE genes. The relationship between

tobacco smoke and the development of RA-ILD is unclear. Smoking has

been independently associated with the development of radiographic and

physiologic abnormalities consistent with ILD (odds ratio for 25

pack-years, 3.76; 95% confidence interval, 1.59, 8.88) (42). However,

more recent studies have not confirmed this association (34, 44) and

the development of ILD clearly does not require smoke exposure (45).

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Read the entire article here:

http://pats.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/full/4/5/443

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