7/1/10 A new study says 1 in 10 people with rheumatoid arthritis will develop serious lung complications over the course of their disease, making interstitial lung disease, or ILD, as deadly to people with RA as congestive heart failure.
“We already knew that RA patients had a rate of ILD, and I knew that it was reasonably high, but I didn’t know how high. It’s a bit of an 'a-ha' moment,” says Imre Noth, MD, director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Program at the University of Chicago Hospitals, who was not involved in the study.
Interstitial lung diseases are conditions characterized by scarring of the lung tissue. In the case of RA-associated ILD, the scarring is caused when the immune system attacks itself, unleashing friendly fire on the joints and other organs, including the lungs.
When the scarring builds up over time, breathing becomes difficult, and patients may need lung transplants to regain function.
While they’ve long known that ILD can be deadly, doctors say until now, there have been few studies helping them understand how prevalent the diseases are in the U.S. and who is most at risk to get them.
For the current study, which was published in the June issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, researchers at the Mayo Clinic collected the medical records of 1,206 patients seen by doctors in Rochester, Minn., between 1955 and 1995. Half of the patients were diagnosed with RA, and half were people of the same age and sex who did not develop the disease.
They found that 7.7 percent of people with RA developed an ILD, compared to a 0.9 percent of patients in the non-RA control group, making the risk of developing lung disease almost nine times higher in people with RA than in the general population.
“That’s high. That’s a hefty number,” Dr. Noth says. “You have to understand the interstitial lung diseases are very tough to treat and carry a very high mortality. So if that’s a consideration in RA, which is a reasonably prevalent disease, it’s something you want to keep an eye on.”
Dr. Noth says that patients who are identified with ILD is in its early stages may be helped by medication and can be put on the waiting list for a lung transplant sooner.
Once a patient in the study was diagnosed with an ILD, the average survival was 2.6 years.
thank you
I have lived a very active lifestyle working construction, hard labor and eventually working my way up into management but still very active and very physical work style. At times I hve forgotten I even had RA. Other times I would ignore it and endure it.
I had a bout with some sort of lung disorder in the early 90's which my Rheumatologist was unable to identify the cause but was able to treat with heavy doses of steroids and it rapidly dissipated and disappeared. All was well with my lungs between then and April of this year. At that time my breathing became very shallow and labored and I have been battling ILD since then. It took to levages and one open lung biopsi to diagnose but my pulmonologist feels we are on the right track now.
Unfortunately the X-ray he showed my earlier this week compared to Aprils X-ray showed marked degradation and the lungs actually appeared about 25 - 30% smaller in capacity. At this rate I fear that I will not last long if they don't find a way to arrest this. One option would be transplant. My pulmonologist stated he would start the paperwork and send it out to the various institutions who perform lung transplants but he informed me not to get my hopes up as I may not be a good candidate due to my RA.
I see in this blog that others here do not see RA as an impediment to getting a lung transplant. Is it? Does anyone know.
Paula
My husband comitted suicide 2 years ago so the stress level has dropped considerably.But the shortness of breath is more severe.
Arava & Methotrexate. They are working, but not to the level of Embrel. I forgot I had RA most of the time. Iam much better now than 10 or 12 years ago. I stopped teaching due to the pain and lack of funtion. I can now due most anything I want, except heavy lefting and climbing. I have had both knees replaced and I am 72 years old. I live alone and due my on cleaning, gardening, sewing, volunteering at church and in the community. I drive to SC to see my grandson at least once a year. I feel so fortunate now, as many years ago I thought I would be in a nusing home at my age. Thanks to new research and meds to control this terible, chronic condition.
I due not have the breath contol I use to have. I sing in our church choir and can tell the diference when singing and also when walking fast or up many steps. This shorter breath may be due to RA or to just older age.
Thank You,
Verna Hinsberger
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