A new prognostic model accurately predicts a patient’s risk of experiencing methotrexate toxicity, but more research is needed before clinical application, experts say.
Risk Factors for Lung Problems With RA
Much is still not known about the connection between RA and ILD, but recent research has identified new risk factors:
Being Male Although more women get RA than men, men are at higher risk than women for developing RA-ILD, according to the Arthritis Foundation. “We need more research to find out why this is so,” says Dr. Sparks. “It could be genetic or that men tend to have a more aggressive severity of RA.”
Long-Term History of Smoking The Brigham and Women’s Hospital Rheumatoid Arthritis Sequential Study (BRASS) presented an abstract at the ACR conference that found that smoking above a threshold of 30 pack-years (for example, one pack per day for 30 years or 2 packs per day for 15 years) was strongly associated with RA-ILD. Sparks was a member of this team.