The likelihood of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is higher among rheumatoid arthritis patients, according to a study published in Arthritis Care & Research.
Canadian researchers examined data on 24,625 patients who were diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis between 1996 and 2006. The compared the data with information on 25,396 controls in the general population.
The study shows individuals with rheumatoid arthritis had a 47 percent greater chance of needing to be hospitalized for COPD than controls. Even after modelling for smoking and varying COPD definitions, the increased risk for the rheumatoid arthritis group remained significant.
"These findings are novel because it has only recently been recognized that inflammation plays a role in the development of COPD, and clinicians treating people with rheumatoid arthritis are not aware that their patients are at increased risk of developing COPD," said Diane Lacaille, MD, of Arthritis Research Canada and the University of British Columbia, principal investigator of the study.