The impact of slice-reduced computed tomography on histogrambased densitometry assessment of lung fibrosis in patients with systemic sclerosis

Pulmonary involvement occurs often in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and is now the leading cause of mortality in SSc patients (1). An autopsy-study showed parenchymal lung abnormalities in up to 80% of SSc patients (2). Pulmonary function tests are considered the gold standard for the screening of parenchymal lung involvement. However, because lung function tests as well as chest X-ray tend to be insensitive to detect early lung involvement, high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) plays an important role in the detection and characterization of interstitial lung disease (ILD) in patients with SSc (3-8)