Interstitial lung abnormality in COPD is associated with higher prevalence of antinuclear antibody

ABSTRACT

Object

To investigate whether the prevalence of positive ANA was increased in COPD with interstitial lung abnormality (ILA).

Methods

Patients with COPD from 1 September, 2019 to 31 August, 2022 were consecutively enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The characteristics, PFTs, visual assessment of ILA and emphysema on chest CT, and tests for ANA and CRP were recorded for analysis.

Results

In the study period, 100 patients with COPD were enrolled, with 90 (90.0%) males, aging 69.4 ± 8.3 years. ILA was present in 42% (n = 42) of the patients, with subpleural non-fibrotic ILA being the most common pattern. In patients with ILA, the prevalence of positive ANA was higher (45.2%) as compared to those without ILA (13.3%); between whom the difference in D_LCO was also significant. In patients with positive ANA, the scores of ILA were higher, while FEV₁, D_LCO, D_LCO % predicted, FVC, total lung capacity (TLC), and TLC % predicted were significantly lower, as compared to those with negative ANA.

Conclusion

The presence of ILA in patients with COPD was associated with a higher prevalence of positive ANA. Patients with positive ANA tended to have lower FEV₁, D_LCO and lung volume.

KEYWORDS:

• Interstitial lung abnormality
• COPD
• antinuclear antibody
• pulmonary function tests
• autoantibody

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the work of the following colleagues: Jiaqi Ren participated in data curation and investigation; Enlong Zhang supported for formal analysis and supervision; Xiaoying Zhang supported for methodology, data curation, and investigation; Xiaoyan Gai participated in data curation and resources; Chun Chang supported for methodology and project administration.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Author contributions

YC Sun: Conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, project administration, supervision, and writing – review & editing.

YW Jiang: Data curation, supervision, and writing – review & editing.

YJ Liu: Data curation, formal analysis, investigation, resources, visualization, and writing – original draft.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

YC Sun is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81970041, 82170048).