[The peculiarities of pulmonary pathology in rheumatoid arthritis]

The review covers the problems of terminology, pathogenesis, morphology, clinical manifestations, and diagnostics of pulmonary pathology in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The main variants of pulmonary and pleural changes in RA are presented. The article covers possibilities provided by modern technologies, which make it possible to widen and objective diagnostic methods, including those directed towards revealing specific changes in respiratory organs in RA patients. The authors give preference to non-invasive radiodiagnostic methods, among which the leading role is played by high-resolution computed tomography due to its high information value in the imaging of pulmonary pathology, compared with conventional chest radiograms. The article also covers the issue of the complex application of non-invasive methods, such as functional (including methods of diffusing lung capacity evaluation), radiological and radionuclid ones, and invasive methods including fibrobronchoscopy, bronchoalveolar lavage, and lung biopsy, in diagnostics of interstitial pulmonary lesion, especially its subclinical variants.