Martin LW, Prisco LC, Huang W, et al. - The findings illustrated that the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis-related bronchiectasis (RA-BR) was nearly 20% among studies with high-resolution chest computed tomography (HRCT) imaging, implying that bronchiectasis may be a common extra-articular feature of RA in this systematic review and meta-analysis. Relatively few factors have been associated with RA-BR. There is a need for future studies to standardize methods for identifying RA-BR cases and evaluate the natural history and clinical course ha given the relatively high prevalence among RA.

• Researchers distinguished 41 total studies that reported on prevalence (n=34), risk factors (n=5), or both (n=2) among a total of 253 studies.

• The enrolled studies had heterogeneous methods to distinguish RA-BR.

• Furthermore, 608 RA-BR cases were distinguished from a total of 8,569 patients with RA among the 36 studies reporting prevalence.

• The pooled overall prevalence of RA-BR among RA was 18.7% (95%CI 13.7-24.3%) using random-effects and 3.8% (95%CI 3.3-4.2%) using fixed effects in the meta-analysis.

• The prevalence of RA-BR was 22.6% (95%CI 16.8-29.0%) using random-effects among studies that used high-resolution chest computed tomography (HRCT) imaging.

• The pooled prevalence of RA-BR among RA was 15.5% (95%CI 7.5-25.5%) when only considering retrospective studies (n=12); among prospective studies (n=24), the pooled prevalence was 20.7% (95% CI 14.7-27.4%).

• Older age, longer RA duration, genetics (CFTR and HLA), and undetectable circulating mannose binding lectin biomarker were the risk factors for RA-BR.