Pulmonary magnetic resonance imaging is similar to chest tomography in detecting inflammation in patients with systemic sclerosis

Publication date: Available online 18 March 2017 Source:Revista Brasileira de Reumatologia (English Edition) Author(s): Carolina de Souza Müller, Danny Warszawiak, Eduardo dos Santos Paiva, Dante Luiz Escuissato Interstitial lung disease (ILD) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) are prevalent complications of systemic sclerosis (SSc) and are currently the leading causes of death related to the disease. The accurate recognition of these conditions is therefore of utmost importance for patient management. A study was carried out with 24 SSc patients being followed at the Rheumatology Department of the Hospital de Clínicas of Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) and 14 healthy volunteers, with the objective of evaluating the usefulness of lung magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) when assessing ILD in SS patients. The results obtained with lung MRI were compared to those obtained by computed tomography (CT) of the chest, currently considered the examination of choice when investigating ILD in SS patients. The assessed population was predominantly composed of women with a mean age of 50 years, limited cutaneous SS, and a disease duration of approximately 7 years. In most cases, there was agreement between the findings on chest CT and lung MRI. Considering it is a radiation-free examination and capable of accurately identifying areas of lung tissue inflammatory involvement, lung MRI showed to be a useful examination, and further studies are needed to assess whether the...
Source: Revista Brasileira de Reumatologia - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: research