HRCT patterns of Interstitial Lung Disease in patients with connective tissue disease.

Background : Interstitial Lung diseases frequently occur in patients with the connective tissue diseases (CTD). High Resolution Computerised Tomography (HRCT) scanning is capable of imaging lung with excellent spatial resolution and providing anatomical detail identical to that seen by gross pathological examination. Aims: To evaluate High Resolution Computerised Tomography patterns of ILD in patients with CTD . Methods and Material: In this prospective study, we evaluated HRCT chest patterns in 36 patients with various CTD between January 2008 and December 2008. The data were entered in MS Excel. Descriptive statistics, i.e., means, standard deviations, frequencies, and percentages, were used to describe the study variables. Results: Out of 36 patients (33.33% females, 66.67% males with a mean age of 44 years), Systemic sclerosis was the most common CTD (44.44%) followed by Rheumatoid arthritis (33.33%), Mixed connective tissue disease (8.33 %) , Systemic lupus erythematosus (5.56%) Polymyositis/Dermatomyositis (5.56 %) and Sjogrens syndrome (2.28 %). In individual HRCT pattern, Reticular pattern is the most frequent presentation (80.6%) followed by Nodular pattern (58.3%) and Ground Glass Opacity(GGO) pattern(50%). Less common are Honeycombing and Traction bronchiectasis. In various combinations of HRCT pattern ReticuloNodular pattern forms the most common presentation(38.9%). Conclusions: HRCT of chest is used as simple, gold standard, non invasive diagnostic tool in diagnosing ILD.A variety of HRCT patterns can be seen in patients CTD - ILD.