PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Francesco Bini AU - Dina Visca AU - Angelo De Lauretis AU - Bruno Bodini AU - Daniele Colombo AU - Paola Faverio AU - Adriano Vaghi TI - Use of Rituximab in the treatment of CTD-ILD in RA patients AID - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2020.1817 DP - 2020 Sep 07 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - 1817 VI - 56 IP - suppl 64 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/56/suppl_64/1817.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/56/suppl_64/1817.full SO - Eur Respir J2020 Sep 07; 56 AB - Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) during its natural history can affect the lung. Pulmonary involvement is variable: sometimes a radiological fibrotic pattern such as Usual Interstitial Pneumoniae (UIP) can develop.Chest CT scan is completely indistinguishable from that of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), with honeycombing and traction bronchiectasis, although some reports seem to show that pulmonary fibrosis cysts of RA patients are larger than those of IPF patients.In RA patients with UIP pattern (connective-tissue-disease/interstitial-lung-disease, CTD-ILD), studies show a severe prognosis in the medium term, only slightly better than the idiopathic form of fibrotic pulmonary involvement.We assessed the clinical and functional trend of patients with CTD-ILD due to RA treated with Rituximab in our center.In the past 3 years we have enrolled 23 patients. Multidisciplinary group diagnosis was made. Patients received Rituximab therapy, 1,000 mg for 2 administrations.In the table are summarized the risults obtained in these 3 years. View this table:The patients showed only 1 episode of complication, an immune complex reaction at the level of the shoulder girdle, which resolved itself and which did not prevent a second treatment.Conclusions: Rituximab has been shown to be safe with only one mild adverse reaction episode. Breath tests show stability of the picture with a slight tendency to improve. We look forward to completing the 3-year follow up.FootnotesCite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2020; 56: Suppl. 64, 1817.This abstract was presented at the 2020 ERS International Congress, in session “Respiratory viruses in the "pre COVID-19" era”.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).