Correlation of delta high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) score with delta clinical variables in early systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a serious pulmonary complication of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is a high-sensitivity diagnostic method useful for routine detection and evaluation of ILD complications of SSc patients (1-10). Recently, Suliman et al. (11) has proposed using HRCT as an additional imaging investigation for screening and early diagnosis of SSc-related ILD (SSc-ILD) in anti-centromere, antibody-negative patients with normal FVC values. Annual HRCT screening for early detection of ILD has also been suggested for early-SSc patients with high risk factors, including male gender, presence of anti-Scl-70, or absence of anti-centromere antibodies (4). Currently, HRCT, in conjunction with pulmonary function test (PFT), serves an important role in measuring SSc-ILD, making treatment decisions (10), and predicting treatment outcomes (5,12-14) and mortality (8)