Prevalence, clinical picture, and pathomorphology of distal airways involvement in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

We performed thorough physical examination, pulmonary functional tests (spirometry, body plethysmography, carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DL, CO) measurement), and multispiral computerized tomography (MSCT) in 104 nonsmoking patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 100 patients without RA and chronic pulmonary diseases to study the prevalence, clinical picture, and pathomorphology of distal airways involvement (bronchiolitis) in RA. Thoracoscopic lung biopsy was performed in one patient with progressive manifestations of rheumatoid bronchiolitis. MSCT revealed direct and indirect signs of bronchiolar involvement in 36 (35 %) RA patients and one patient of the control group (p