Shrinking lung syndrome in systemic lupus erythematosus-scleroderma overlap
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Updated: Apr 21, 2026

Imaging Features of Systemic Sclerosis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease
Published on: June 16, 2020
Vivek S Guleria1, Pradeep K Singh1, Puneet Saxena1
1Department of Internal Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
Abstract:
Shrinking lung syndrome (SLS) is a infrequently reported manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Reported prevalence of SLS is about 0.5% in SLE patients. Pathogenesis is not fully understood and different therapeutic modalities have been employed with variable results, as only 77 cases of SLS have been documented in literature. SLS in SLE-Scleroderma overlap has not been reported yet. We report a patient of SLE - scleroderma overlap presenting with dyspnea, intermittent orthopnea and pleuritic chest pain. Evaluation revealed elevated hemidiaphragms and severe restrictive defect. She was eventually diagnosed as a case of SLS. This case report is a reminder to the medical fraternity that SLS although a rare complication must be thought of in the special subset of patients of SLE having respiratory symptoms.
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