Manifestation	Characteristics
Cardiac
Accelerated atherosclerosis	Leading cause of death in patients with RA
Pericarditis	Present in 30% to 50% of persons with RA on autopsy, rarely leads to tamponade
Eye
Episcleritis/scleritis	Acute, red, painful eye; occurs in less than 1% of patients with RA
Keratoconjunctivitis sicca	Secondary Sjögren syndrome, dry mouth may also occur
Peripheral ulcerative keratitis	More severe scleritis, if untreated can perforate anterior chamber
Hematologic
Amyloidosis	Caused by chronic inflammation
Felty syndrome	Splenomegaly, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia
Nervous system
Cervical myelopathy	Caused by C1–C2 subluxation, seen on flexion-extension radiography
Neuropathy	Carpal tunnel, mononeuritis multiplex (foot drop)
Pulmonary
Caplan syndrome	Nodules and pneumoconiosis (e.g., in coal miners)
Interstitial lung disease	May resemble bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, patient may also have pulmonary arterial hypertension
Pleural effusion	Exudative effusion with markedly low glucose level
Pulmonary nodules	Can be asymptomatic
Skin
Rheumatoid nodules	Firm or rubbery, located on pressure areas (e.g., olecranon)
Vasculitis	Poor prognosis, increased mortality, rare but occurs with severe RA (i.e., erosive, deforming, and seropositive disease)