Prospective Identification of Subclinical Interstitial Lung Disease in a Rheumatoid Arthritis Cohort Is Associated with the MUC5B Promoter Variant

Matson et al discuss a prospective identification of subclinical interstitial lung disease in a rheumatoid arthritis cohort is associated with the MUC5B promoter variant. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is common among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but ILD isoften diagnosed late when there is already a heavy burden of lung disease. They discovered that the MUCSB promoter variant is a genetic risk factor for patients with established RA-ILD. Given this association, we hypothesized that the MUCSB promoter variant would also be associated with subclinical ILD among patients with RA. They performed a prospective study of subjects with RA without known ILD to determine the prevalence of and risk factors for subclinical ILD in RA.