[Pulmonary comorbidity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis growing interest in association with bronchiectasis].

Association of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with bronchiectasis (BR) has attracted rising attention recently. Prevalence of BR in patients with RA was higher compared to general population and so was prevalence of RA in patients with BR. Presence of BR in patients with RA is associated with strong positivity of anti-citrullinated peptide antibody and rheumatoid factor(i.e., RA associated autoantibodies (RAAAB)). Several lines of evidence indicated that patients with BR without RA showed higher positivity for RAAAB than normal controls, and BRRA patients had higher positivity for RAAAB than RA patients without BR. Histological analysis of biopsied pulmonary tissue from patients with RA showed that inducible bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (iBALT) contained a larger number of lymphoid follicles and germinal centers, and produced RAAAB. These data indicate that lung can be a primary initiating site of autoimmunity in RA.