Venetsanopoulou Aliki I, Goules Andreas V, Vlachoyiannopoulos Panayiotis G, Drosos Alexandros A, Tzioufas Athanasios G, Voulgari Paraskevi V
Department of Rheumatology, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Greece.
Department of Pathophysiology, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
Mediterr J Rheumatol. 2023 Aug 4;34(4):588-591. doi: 10.31138/mjr.20230804.tr. eCollection 2023 Dec.
Capillaroscopy is a non-invasive and safe imaging method that allows the evaluation of the microcirculation of the small vessels of the skin. The method's main advantage is the early detection of microvascular changes that may occur in certain connective tissue diseases (CTDs). Today, the presence of specific autoantibodies and capillaroscopic findings are generally accepted and emerge as a powerful diagnostic tool for detecting underlying CTDs in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon. The role of capillaroscopy has also been investigated in patients with CTD and interstitial lung disease (ILD). In these patients, lung involvement is considered one of the most severe complications, potentially leading to significant morbidity and mortality. So far, studies have shown an association of the scleroderma pattern in capillaroscopy with lung involvement in Scleroderma patients. Although there are studies on the association of capillary findings in patients with other CTDs, further efforts are needed to evaluate this technique and produce high-performance algorithms in the early detection of involvement and the progression of (CTD) related ILD (CTD-ILD). The present study aims to perform capillaroscopy in CTDILD patients with different imaging patterns and to correlate the method's findings with those found in high-resolution computed tomography, pulmonary tests, and the immunological profile of patients. Furthermore, the impact of ILD treatment on the capillaroscopic findings will be evaluated.
毛细血管镜检查是一种非侵入性的安全成像方法,可用于评估皮肤小血管的微循环。该方法的主要优点是能够早期发现某些结缔组织病(CTD)中可能出现的微血管变化。如今,特定自身抗体的存在和毛细血管镜检查结果已被普遍接受,并成为检测雷诺现象患者潜在CTD的有力诊断工具。毛细血管镜检查在CTD和间质性肺病(ILD)患者中的作用也已得到研究。在这些患者中,肺部受累被认为是最严重的并发症之一,可能导致显著的发病率和死亡率。到目前为止,研究表明毛细血管镜检查中的硬皮病模式与硬皮病患者的肺部受累有关。虽然有关于其他CTD患者毛细血管检查结果相关性的研究,但仍需要进一步努力来评估该技术,并开发出在早期检测(CTD)相关ILD(CTD-ILD)的受累情况和进展方面的高性能算法。本研究旨在对具有不同成像模式的CTD-ILD患者进行毛细血管镜检查,并将该方法的结果与高分辨率计算机断层扫描、肺部检查以及患者的免疫学特征进行关联。此外,还将评估ILD治疗对毛细血管镜检查结果的影响。