TY - JOUR T1 - Rheumatological Assessment Is Important for Interstitial Lung Disease Diagnosis JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol DO - 10.3899/jrheum.171314 SP - jrheum.171314 AU - Yair Levi AU - Lilach Israeli-Shani AU - Michael Kuchuk AU - Gali Epstein Shochet AU - Matthew Koslow AU - David Shitrit Y1 - 2018/08/15 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2018/08/10/jrheum.171314.abstract N2 - Objective Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) form a diverse group of parenchymal lung disorders. Currently, a multidisciplinary team (MDT) including pulmonologists, radiologists, and pathologists is the gold standard for ILD diagnosis. Recently, additional subtypes of connective tissue disease (CTD)-ILD with autoimmune features were defined, making the rheumatological assessment increasingly important. We aimed to assess the effect of adding a rheumatologist to the MDT for routine rheumatology assessment. Methods A prospective study that assessed newly diagnosed ILD patients by 2 parallel blinded arms; all patients were evaluated by both MDT (e.g., history, physical examination, blood tests, pulmonary function tests, and biopsies, if needed) and a rheumatologist (e.g., history, physical examination, blood and serological tests). Results Sixty patients were assessed with the mean age of 67.3 ± 12 years, 55% male, and 28% smokers. The rheumatological assessment reclassified 21% of the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis as CTD. Moreover, the number of CTD-ILD with autoimmune features was increased by 77%. These included antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody–associated vasculitis, antisynthetase syndrome, and IgG4-related ILD. Retrospectively, rheumatological evaluation could have saved 7 bronchoscopies and 1 surgical biopsy. Conclusion Adding routine rheumatology assessments could significantly increase diagnostic accuracy and reduce invasive procedures. ER -