Do Ultrasound Lung Abnormalities Correlate to Biomarkers and Male Gender in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients? A Monocentric Cross-Sectional Study.

Background

Lung ultrasound (LUS) is a tool of growing interest in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) oligo- symptomatic ILD to avoid.

Objective

We aimed to evaluate (i) the prevalence of pleural (PLUS) and parenchymal (PAUS) abnormalities in LUS in the RA population and their possible correlation to biomarkers; (ii) the predictivity of gender, smoking habits, previous infections (past COVID-19 tuberculosis), and treatments; (iii) the differences in LUS between sexes.

Methods

We collected the data of 155 (15 early and 140 late) RA patients with mild respiratory symptoms, evaluating PLUS and PAUS, in fourteen lung areas and also summing the scores (LUS-T).

Results

Only 13/155 (8.4%) were completely negative; LUS correlated to age (all parameters p 0.0001), rheumatoid factor IgM (PLUS p 0.0006, PAUS p 0.02, LUS-T p 0.001) and ACPA (p 0.001, 0.006, 0.001, respectively), and PLUS also correlated to IL6 (p 0.02). The male gender was predictive of all LUS evaluations (p 0.001, 0.05, 0.001, respectively), which were higher than in women (p 0.001, 0.01, 0.001, respectively). Other potential risk factors were independent, except biological treatments, which showed a low predictivity to PLUS (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

We can conclude that LUS is a useful technique in RA low respiratory symptoms and correlates with age, the most important RA biomarkers, and male sex.