©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 26, 2025; 13(33): 110641
Published online Nov 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i33.110641
Published online Nov 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i33.110641
Impact of type 2 diabetes mellitus on interstitial lung disease risk in rheumatoid arthritis
Jacob Sutton, Georges Khattar, Fares Saliba, Omar Mourad, Laurence Aoun, Jennifer Jdaidani, Hamza Qandil, Chris Kaspar, Saif Abu-Baker, Shaza Almardini, Fadi Haddadin, Elie Bou Sanayeh, Department of Internal Medicine, Staten Island University Hospital-Northwell Health, Staten Island, NY 10305, United States
Anastasia Slobodnick, Department of Rheumatology, Staten Island University Hospital-Northwell Health, Staten Island, NY 10305, United States
Co-first authors: Jacob Sutton and Georges Khattar.
Author contributions: Sutton J, Khattar G designed the study concept and methodology; Mourad O, Saliba F, Jdaidani J, Khattar G collected and analyzed the data; Khattar G, Jdaidani J, Aoun L, Abu-Baker S, Almardini S, Haddadin F, Bou Sanayeh E, Qandil H, Kaspar C contributed to writing the manuscript and revising it critically; Slobodnick A, Khattar G, Mourad O, Saliba F provided important intellectual content and final clinical interpretation; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was exempt from IRB approval as it utilized publicly available, de-identified data from the National Inpatient Sample, in accordance with guidelines for research not involving human subjects.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was not required for this study, as it involved analysis of de-identified, publicly available data from the National Inpatient Sample. No individual patient information was accessed. All investigators have reviewed and approved the use of this dataset and the conduct of this study in accordance with ethical standards.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to this study.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement- checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The data used in this study are publicly available through the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project National Inpatient Sample database. Access to the National Inpatient Sample requires registration and compliance with Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project data use agreements.
Corresponding author: Jacob Sutton, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Staten Island University Hospital-Northwell Health, 475 Seaview Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10305, United States. jsutton2@northwell.edu
Received: June 11, 2025
Revised: June 26, 2025
Accepted: October 22, 2025
Published online: November 26, 2025
Processing time: 163 Days and 6.1 Hours
Revised: June 26, 2025
Accepted: October 22, 2025
Published online: November 26, 2025
Processing time: 163 Days and 6.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: In this large inpatient study, we found that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with type 2 diabetes have about twice the odds of developing interstitial lung disease compared to those without diabetes. This novel association remained significant after adjusting for numerous confounders. Diabetic RA patients also showed more pulmonary hypertension and pneumothorax. These results highlight the “diabetic lung” as a potential new consideration in RA care. Clinicians should be aware that co-morbid diabetes might heighten pulmonary risks in RA, although prospective studies are needed to confirm if controlling diabetes can improve lung outcomes.