Researchers developed a score to stratify the risk for subclinical rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD), according to a study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology. Juge Pierre-Antoine, MD, PhD, and colleagues developed and validated a risk score for subclinical RA-ILD in a discovery and replication population of patients without pulmonary symptoms from two prospective RA cohorts (ESPOIR and TRANSLATE2) who underwent chest high-resolution computed tomography scans. All patients underwent genotyping for MUC5B rs35705950. The prevalence rates of subclinical RA-ILD were 19.0% in the discovery population and 16.9% in the replication population. Independent risk factors for subclinical RA-ILD in the discovery population included the MUC5B rs35705950 T risk allele, male sex, older age at RA onset, and increased mean Disease Activity Score-28 for RA with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ORs, 3.74, 3.93, 1.10 for each year, and 2.03 for each unit, respectively).
