Validation of screening criteria for interstitial lung disease in rheumatoid arthritis in routine clinical practice: the VAR-EPIDSER study
Objectives To evaluate the validity of the rheumatoid arthritis-interstitial lung disease screening project of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology (AR-EPIDSER) screening criteria for detecting rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD) and to estimate the prevalence of undi...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunitat Valenciana (FISABIO) |
| Repositorio: | r-FISABIO. Repositorio Institucional de Producción Científica |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:r-fisabio___::10ed2ec84fc5077fcb0126d589976945 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://fisabio.portalinvestigacion.com/publicaciones/21498 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Rheumatoid Arthritis Prevalence Lung Diseases, Interstitial |
| Resumo: | Objectives To evaluate the validity of the rheumatoid arthritis-interstitial lung disease screening project of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology (AR-EPIDSER) screening criteria for detecting rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD) and to estimate the prevalence of undiagnosed and subclinical ILD in patients with RA in Spain.<br /> Patients and methods Multicentre cross-sectional observational study conducted in 15 Spanish hospitals. Adult patients with RA (American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 1987 or ACR/European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology 2010 criteria) without a previous ILD diagnosis were included. During a rheumatology visit, the AR-EPIDSER screening criteria were applied, and all participants underwent high-resolution CT (HRCT) of the chest as the reference test, with centralised reading. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were estimated with 95% Cl as well as the prevalence of ILD and subclinical ILD.<br /> Results A total of 477 patients were recruited, 424 had evaluable HRCT (73.6% women, median age 59 years). The prevalence of ILD on HRCT examinations was 13.0% (55/424; 95% CI 9.9% to 16.6%). Subclinical ILD (no cough, dyspnoea or 'Velcro-like' crackles) was 8.3% (35/424; 95%CI 5.7% to 11.1%), accounting for 63.6% of ILD cases. Screening was positive in 68.2% (289/424). The AR-EPIDSER criteria showed sensitivity-0.93 (95% CI 0.82 to 0.98), specificity=0.36 (0.31 to 0.41), PPV-0.18 (0.13 to 0.23) and NPV-0.97 (0.93 to 0.99).<br /> Conclusion In Spanish patients with RA, undiagnosed ILD is frequent and mostly subclinical. The AR-EPIDSER criteria are useful as an initial screening tool due to high sensitivity and excellent NPV; however, low specificity suggests that positive cases should be confirmed by HRCT. |
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