Kiely P, et al. - In this investigation, researchers evaluated predictive factors for rheumatoid arthritis interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) in two early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) inception cohorts—the early RA study (ERAS) and the early RA network (ERAN)— with a focus on methotrexate (MTX) exposure. Study participants included 2,701 patients with a new diagnosis of RA. The investigators noted an RA-ILD prevalence of 3.7% in the ERAS/ERAN cohorts, with independent significant incident associations in line with other studies—namely older RA onset, smoking, nodules, RF positivity, male gender and high ESR. They did not identify any strong association of MTX treatment with an increased risk of RA-ILD diagnosis. However, MTX could delay the onset of ILD, according to findings.