Screening for interstitial lung disease in systemic sclerosis: performance of high-resolution CT with limited number of slices: a prospective study

Frauenfelder, Thomas
Winklehner, Anna
Nguyen, Thi Dan Linh
Dobrota, Rucsandra
Baumueller, Stephan
Maurer, Britta
Distler, Oliver

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Publication date

January 2014

DOI

10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-205637

Publisher

BMJ

ISSN

0003-4967

Citation count (estimate)

Abstract

OBJECTIVES Early diagnosis of interstitial lung disease (ILD), currently the main cause of death in systemic sclerosis (SSc), is needed. The gold standard is high-resolution CT (HRCT) of the chest, but regular screening faces the risk of increased radiation exposure. We performed a prospective validation of a dedicated, 9-slice HRCT protocol with reduced radiation dose for the detection of ILD in patients with SSc. METHODS We analysed 170/205 consecutive patients with SSc. Whole-chest HRCT, serving as standard of reference, and the reduced HRCT with nine slices allocated according to a basal-apical gradient were obtained. ILD presence, extent (> or <20%) and diagnostic confidence were assessed. The reduced HRCT was independently analysed...