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Imaging Features of Systemic Sclerosis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease
Published on: June 16, 2020
The Burden of Interstitial Lung Involvement in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Could Lung Ultrasound Have a Role in Its
Gemma Lepri1, Milica Markovic1, Silvia Bellando-Randone1
1Division of Rheumatology, AOU Careggi, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Via delle Oblate 4, 50141 Florence, Italy.
Abstract:
Lung involvement represents a fearful complication in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), potentially involving all compartments of the pulmonary system. Regarding interstitial lung disease (ILD), the HRCT represents the gold standard technique for its diagnosis; however, the examination is burdened by radiation exposure and high costs. In addition, although some risk factors for ILD are known, no algorithms exist to know which patients to submit to HRCT and when. In this context, lung ultrasound (LUS) showed promising results for at least 10 years, demonstrating correlation with high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) findings in other rheumatic diseases. Here, LUS may represent a screening test providing additional information to clinical examination and pulmonary function tests. The data deriving from LUS experience in other rheumatic diseases could steer the future towards the use of this technique also in RA patients, and in this review, we report the most relevant literature regarding LUS in RA-ILD.
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