There is no evidence that rheumatoid arthritis is directly related to COPD, but rheumatoid arthritis itself and the medications used to treat it may aggravate pre-existing lung disease.
COPD is associated with multiple factors such as smoking, long-term exposure to lung irritants, and infections, and can present with chronic cough, sputum, and dyspnea. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease of unknown etiology that is characterized by chronic, symmetric, multisynovial arthritis and extra-articular lesions, and may present with cardiac, pulmonary, and neurological involvement.
Lung involvement in rheumatoid arthritis patients may present with interstitial pneumonia, interstitial fibrosis, pleurisy and rheumatoid pneumoconiosis, which manifests as dry cough, fatigue, and respiratory distress. Rheumatoid arthritis is often exacerbated if the patient originally had a lung disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
In addition, disease-improving antirheumatic drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, such as methotrexate, may also aggravate pre-existing lung disease, and should be used by patients as prescribed by their doctors.
It is recommended that patients with rheumatoid arthritis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease go to the rheumatology and immunology department or respiratory medicine department of the hospital and receive standardized treatment under the guidance of the doctor.