Abstract

Introduction: Autoimmune diseases have increasing importance in modern medicine and cover increasing areas of medicine including rheumatoid arthritis interstitial lung disease. Aim: The main aims of this study are to evaluate the association of some autoimmune variables in patients with rheumatoid arthritis interstitial lung disease. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted from files of patients with rheumatoid arthritis interstitial lung disease. A total of 210 files of intended patients were included in this study. The study was conducted in rehabilitation clinics at Royal Medical Services. Study variables include some demographic variables such as age, and gender; clinical variables such as disease related factors such as duration, diagnostic criteria; predictive factors such as rheumatoid factors, smoking, and MTX treatment. Data were collected and entered into excel spreadsheet to create raw data. The analysis of data was carried out using the software SPSS version 21. Descriptive statistical parameters were used to describe data including means and standard deviations for continuous variables. Frequency and percentages were used to describe categorized variables such as gender. The relationships between study variables were computed using independent T test, and One Way ANOVA test. Significance was determined if α≤ 0.05. Results: The prevalence of RA-ILD was 3.70%. The study participants were subdivided into two groups according to MTX treatment, non-exposed group and exposed group. There were significant relationships between MTX treatment and study variables including gender, age of (rheumatoid arthritis) RA onset, smoking, and rheumatoid factor (RF). The progression of RA-ILD was impacted by gender, age of (rheumatoid arthritis) RA onset, smoking, rheumatoid factor (RF), and MTX treatment. Conclusion: Patients with RA and RA-ILD follow similar clinical characteristics in other studies except MTX treatment, but this can’t be generalized because of small number of RA-ILD patients.

Key words: rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid factor, interstitial lung disease, smoking, age