POS0522 PREVALENCE OF BRONCHIECTASIS IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

Background: Bronchiectasis is a known extra-articular manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and can lead to decreased quality of life as well as increased risk for infection and mortality. Understanding the burden of bronchiectasis in RA may lead to a better understanding of pathogenesis and improved management. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the prevalence of bronchiectasis in RA. Objectives: We investigated the prevalence of RA-related bronchiectasis (RA-BR) using a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: We followed the PRISMA-P 2015 guideline for systematic reviews and registered this analysis (ID#199080) on PROSPERO. We queried PubMed and EMBASE databases using the search strategy “rheumatoid arthritis; AND; bronchiectasis” as of July 31, 2020. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were assessed for study eligibility by two independent abstractors. Exclusion criteria included: (1) non-primary literature (i.e., review articles, editorials); (2) case reports involving less than 5 patients; (3) published in a language other than English; (4) did not relate to both RA and bronchiectasis; and (5) studies not involving humans (e.g., mouse models). After the initial screen, we conducted a full text review to verify that inclusion criteria were met: (1) reported frequency of RA-BR and denominator of all RA patients in the study sample. Data including type of study design, method of RA-BR detection, and RA characteristics were extracted by two independent abstractors. We performed meta-analyses using random effects models to estimate prevalence of RA-BR among RA overall and restricted to retrospective or prospective studies. Results: Out of a total of 208 studies, 37 studies were identified that reported frequency of RA-BR among RA. The included studies had heterogeneous methods to identify RA-BR that were based on either clinical or research chest computed tomography (CT) imaging and had varying methods to adjudicate images. Some studies focused on patients with respiratory symptoms or suspected RA-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD). There were a total of 8,646 patients with RA, and 612 were identified as having RA-BR. The pooled overall prevalence of RA-BR in the random effects meta-analysis was 18.2% (95%CI 13.3-23.7%, Figure 1). Among prospective studies (n=24), the prevalence of RA-BR in the meta-analysis was 20.7% (95% CI 14.7-27.4%). Among retrospective studies (n=13) reporting RA-BR, the prevalence was 14.5% (95% CI 7.2-23.7%). Prevalence was lowest in retrospective studies where RA-BR was identified through clinical care (e.g., two large retrospective studies that investigated 4,000 and 1,129 RA patients reported RA-BR prevalence of 0.6% and 2.7%, respectively). The two largest prospective studies that incorporated a research protocol performing chest CT imaging on all enrolled patients investigated 150 and 332 patients with RA and reported a RA-BR prevalence of 8.0% and 9.6%, respectively. Smaller studies of both study design types generally reported higher prevalence of RA-BR. Conclusion: The prevalence of RA-BR in this systematic review and meta-analysis was 18.2%, emphasizing that bronchiectasis is a common extra-articular feature of RA. However, some studies may have identified subclinical RA-BR through research imaging or RA-BR may have been secondary to RA-ILD. Future studies should standardize methods to identify RA-BR cases and investigate the natural history and clinical course given the relatively high prevalence that we report. Disclosure of Interests: Lily Martin: None declared, Lauren Prisco: None declared, Weixing Huang: None declared, Gregory McDermott: None declared, Nancy Shadick Consultant of: Consultant