Lung
Interstitial lung diseases
Rheumatoid lung disease
Author: Elliot Weisenberg, M.D.
Last author update: 1 December 2011
Last staff update: 6 January 2025 (update in progress)
Copyright: 2003-2025, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed search: rheumatoid lung disease [title]
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Treatment | Gross description | Microscopic (histologic) description | Differential diagnosisCite this page: Weisenberg E. Rheumatoid lung disease. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/lungnontumorrheumatoid.html. Accessed January 18th, 2025.
Definition / general
- Variable presentation of chronic pleuritis, effusion, diffuse interstitial fibrosis, intrapulmonary rheumatoid nodules, rheumatoid nodules with pneumoconiosis (Caplan syndrome), pulmonary hypertension, bronchiolitis obliterans, amyloidosis and vasculitis
- Note: 30% with rheumatoid arthritis have abnormal pulmonary function
- Rheumatoid nodules are associated with active joint disease and elevated titers of rheumatoid factor
Treatment
- Steroids (thus, must first rule out an infectious process)
Gross description
- Pleural fibrosis, rheumatoid nodules and pneumonia
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Rheumatoid granuloma usually in lung periphery near pleura
- Round with zone of pallisading histiocytes perpendicular to necrobiotic center
- Adjacent vasculitis
- Nodules have carbon and silica within the necrotic center in Caplan syndrome
Differential diagnosis
