The unveiling of the updated 2025 recommendations for RA treatment, presented by Josef Smolen in the plenary session on the first day of the conference, sparked attention. Although not yet formally published, these updated recommendations represent a refined consensus that simplifies decision-making while reinforcing the importance of treat-to-target principles in RA.

I'm a pulmonologist at the University of Kansas in Kansas City, and I'm excited to talk about one of my favorite topics: treatment complications in rheumatoid arthritis- associated interstitial lung disease or RA-ILD. One of the reasons I think this is a pressing and important topic is what we're dealing with here is a group of patients who have really poor outcomes, even with the significant advances that the rheumatology community's been able to make in the management of the underlying synovial disease.

Australian researchers have shown that methotrexate (MTX) has another secondary, beneficial effect by significantly lowering systolic blood pressure, and contributes to its well docuented cardioprotive effecs.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune disease, and approximately 30%-40% of patients develop pulmonary complications such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), but the causal relationship between the two has long been unclear.