Systemic sclerosis & Raynaud's
Lung vascular changes as biomarkers of severity in systemic sclerosis–associated interstitial lung disease
Authors' conclusion
In SSc patients CT vessel parameters increase in parallel with ILD extent and functional impairment, and may represent a biomarker of SSc-ILD severity.
Study context
- Population
- SSc patients undergoing standard of care pulmonary function testing and CT evaluation52 women
- Participants
- 79 patients
- Exposure
- SSc-ILD vs SSc without interstitial lung disease (ILD)
- SSc-ILDn = 40
- Outcome
- CT-quantified lung vessel parameters (volumes, numbers and densities of vessels, arteries and veins) and their correlation with ILD features
Methodological detailsquantitative CT vascular analysis
- Quantitative CT vascular analysis
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
CT vessel parameters vs ILD features
- Vascular parameters for total and separated pulmonary vascular volume (PVV) significantly correlated with functional parameters and ILD pattern extents
- SSc-ILD: increased number and volume of arterial vessels, particularly 2–4 mm diameter
- SSc-ILD: higher density of arteries and veins <6 mm diameter
- Normalized PVVs, vessel numbers and densities increased progressively with increasing ILD extent and functional impairment
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Baseline characteristics
- Mean age (s.d.), years
- 56.2 (14.2)
- Total ILD extent
- 9.5 (10.7)%
- PVV/lung volume %
- 2.8%
Original publication
Lung vascular changes as biomarkers of severity in systemic sclerosis–associated interstitial lung disease. Rheumatology (Oxford). Published 16 June 2022. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →