Rheumatoid Arthritis with Lung Lesions

Abstract

Eliman and Of their three cases, which clinically presented typical rheumatoid arthritis associated with signs of pulmonary disease, two came to post-mortem examination. Histologically the lungs showed patchy fibrosing pneumonitis and alveolar fibrosis which were believed by these authors to indicate rheumatoid damage to the lung parenchyma. Since then other cases have been described, most of them, however, without necropsy confirmation, although Christie (1954) described three cases with careful necropsy studies but without any full description of the radiological changes. More recently, Rubin (1955) described four similar cases, in three of which lung biopsy showed an appearance of fibrosing pneumonitis.