[Idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Apropos of a case]

A 38-year-old woman was known to have had a histologically proven "idiopathic" pulmonary hemosiderosis for 7 years; the authors report the onset in this patient of polyarthralgias with articular swelling and positivity of rheumatoid factor, all features consistent with the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, whose beginning was certainly hidden by steroid therapy. This case, as some others previously published, outlines the possibility of the association of pulmonary hemosiderosis and rheumatoid arthritis: is this a casual association, or may pulmonary hemosiderosis be a rare manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis?