Screening for Lung Disease in SSc Called Feasible With Low-Dose CT

Frauenfelder T, Winklehner a, Nguyen TDL, et al.Screening for interstitial lung disease in systemic sclerosis: performance of high-resolution CT with limited number of slices: a prospective study.Ann Rheum Dis. (2014) doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-205637 Published online September 30

Routine low-dose screening may be possible for systemic sclerosis patients who are at risk for interstitial lung disease (ILD).

Image readers rate more than 90% of the images from the low-dose computed tomography (CT) protocol in this population as “excellent” or “acceptable,” report researchers from University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland. The readers accurately identify extensive ILD in 88.3% of the images.

Earlier diagnosis of ILD may mean earlier treatment and better outcomes, they point out.

Their 9-slice high-resolution CT screening protocol delivers an effective radiation dose of about .08 mSv, a 96.2% reduction in radiation from 2.09 mSv with a standard whole-chest CT protocol.

The authors suggest that low-dose CT screening in this patient population may be incorporated into the “daily clinical routine of early detection and screening of interstitial lung disease.”