Clinical Features and Risk Factors Associated with Interstitial Lung Disease in Patients with Classic Dermatomyositis or Clinical Amyopathic Dermatomyositis

Objective To investigate the clinical features and risk factors associated with interstitial lung disease (ILD) in patients with classic dermatomyositis (classic DM) or clinical amyopathic dermatomyositis (CADM). Methods Medical records of 121 DM patients (77 with classic DM and 44 with CADM) were reviewed retrospectively. The risk factors associated with ILD were identified through Binary Logistic Regression analyses. Results ILD presented in 40.3% (31/77) of patients with classic DM and 50.0% (22/44) of patients with CADM. Overall, the DM patients had a prevalence of ILD of 43.8%. Univariate analyses showed that arthralgia, cough, dyspnea, anti-Jo-1 antibody, malignant tumors, and the levels of Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and Albumin (ALB) were associated with ILD. The Multivariate Logistic Regression analysis identified arthralgia (β=1.119,P=0.023), cough (β=2.423,P=0.003) and ESR (β=0.041,P=0.009) as risk factors of ILD. Conclusion ILD is a common complication of classic DM/CADM and arthralgia, cough and high level of ESR are independent risk factors of ILD.