Rheumatoid arthritis may raise COPD risk

In the journal Arthritis Care & Research, the researchers describe how they found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis had a 47 percent higher risk of being hospitalized with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than the general population.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease — that is, it develops because the immune system wrongly attacks healthy tissue, mainly in the joints. As a result, the lining of the affected joints — commonly the knees, hands, and wrists — become inflamed, causing pain and swelling.

The disease can also attack tissue in the rest of the body, including muscle, tendons, connective tissue, and fibrous tissue, and it can affect the heart, lungs, and eyes.

Estimates suggest that up to 1 percent of people around the world have rheumatoid arthritis, with women and those in developed countries being the most affected.

COPD is a group of diseases in which, as time goes by, breathing becomes more difficult. It includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and some types of asthma.