Diagnostic performance of the Forced Oscillation Technique in the detection of early respiratory changes in Rheumatoid Arthritis

The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical potential of the Forced Oscillation Technique (FOT) in the detection of the early alterations in respiratory mechanics of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients. A total of 36 individuals were analyzed, 18 healthy and 18 with RA. The clinical usefulness of the parameters was evaluated investigating sensibility (Se), specificity (Sp) and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). In the RA group, all the 3 studied parameters obtained high accuracy for clinical use (AUC>0.9), while in spirometric parameters, no parameter obtained appropriate accuracy for clinical use (AUC<0.7). In conclusion, the parameters obtained by FOT presented adequate Se and Sp, indicating that this technique can be helpful in the evaluation of the early respiratory mechanical alterations in patients with RA.