Assessment of lung ultrasound in patients with scleroderma systematica and interstitial lung disease

Abstract

Objective: to estimate the informative value and reproducibility of ultrasound study (USS) in interstitial lung disease (ILD) in patients with scleroderma systematica (SDS) and to compare ultrasound lung comet (ULC) scores with the data of multislice spiral computed tomography (MSCT) of the lung and its function tests. Subjects and methods. Forty patients with SSD and ILD were examined. According to the extent of lung injury, the patients were divided into two groups: 1) 12 patients with significantly pronounced changes (>20% lung involvement, as evidenced by MSCT); 2) 28 patients with just noticeable changes (<20% lung involvement). ULC scoring was used to record the results of lung USS. Results. In the SDS patients from Group 1, the ULC scores were significantly higher than those in Group 2 (113.6+48.3 and 35.3+32.7, respectively; р < 0.0005). Those in the entire group were inversely correlated with forced vital capacity (r = -0.56; р < 0.05) and diffuse lung capacity (r = -0.57; р < 0.05). Assessment of the reproducibility of ULC scoring disclosed no significant differences in the data obtained by two investigators; the Kendall concordance coefficient turned out to be rather high (r = 0.81; p < 0.001). Conclusion. Lung USS may be used as a simple, well-reproducible additional study of ILD in SDS, which can identify lung fibrosis and estimate its extent.