Photo Credit: Myboxpra

Study authors, who published their findings online in RMD Open, investigated the impact of disease activity and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) treatment on all-cause mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) using data from the RABBIT register. Among 15,566 participants, the study team analyzed 381 RA-ILD cases. During a median follow-up of 2.6 years, 97 patients (25.5%) died; 35.1% of them did not receive DMARD therapy at the time of death. Results linked higher inflammatory biomarkers to increased mortality, while swollen and tender joint counts were not. Non-TNFi biologic DMARDs showed adjusted hazard ratios for mortality below 1 compared with TNFi but without statistical significance. Combined non-TNFi biologics and JAK inhibitors had a joint hazard ratio of 0.56 versus TNFi. The researchers noted patients who did not receive any DMARD treatment doubled the mortality risk compared with those receiving any DMARD (aHR 2.03).