:
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is the most common form of pulmonary impairment in patients with rheumatoid
arthritis (RA). However, patients with RA or other arthritic diseases such as psoriatic arthritis (PsA) or peripheral
spondyloarthritis (pSpA) may develop several other pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD)
with a higher risk than patients without arthritis. The article at hand aims at summarizing the current knowledge on the
prevalence of pulmonary diseases in the above-mentioned forms of arthritis, the challenges for prevalence studies and
detecting pulmonary diseases in patients with arthritis as well as possible treatment options.
Dyspnea, cough or other pulmonary symptoms or findings in arthritis patients should prompt gradual diagnostic
procedures considering pulmonary manifestations as a major cluster of differential diagnosis. Considering its poor
prognosis and morbidity burden, RA-ILD needs to be ruled out. Treatment of manifestations often lacks solid evidencebased guidelines and referrals to specialized centers are often necessary.
