Lung Disease With Rheumatoid Arthritis Increases Mortality Risk

Individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) have significantly higher mortality risk compared with individuals with RA alone, according to the results of a recent study.

For their study, the researchers collected data from RA patients diagnosed between 2004 and 2016 in Denmark, matching 679 patients with RA and ILD with 11,722 patients with RA alone.
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Overall, 1-year mortality was 13.9% and 3.8%, 5-year mortality was 39.0%, and 18.2%, and 10-year mortality was 60.1% and 34.5% among RA-ILD patients and RA-alone patients, respectively.

Hazard rate ratios for death were 2 to 10 times higher in RA-ILD patients compared with RA-alone patients, regardless of follow-up period. Hazard rate ratios were higher among males and patients without comorbidity as assessed by the Charlson Comorbidity Index.

“ILD is a serious complication in RA, with a significantly increased mortality compared with a large matched cohort of RA comparisons without ILD.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Hyldgaard C, Hilberg O, Pedersen AB, et al. A population-based cohort study of rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease: comorbidity and mortality [published online June 13, 2017]. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2017-211138.