Pulmonary Involvement in Systemic Sclerosis: Cases Review*

OBJECTIVE: To review and evaluate the patterns of imaging examinations findings of lung disease in patients with systemic sclerosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Plain X-rays and high-resolution computed tomography studies of 23 patients with systemic sclerosis were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: At plain X-rays, pulmonary disease with reticular pattern had higher prevalence, appearing in 18 patients (78.2%). High-resolution computed tomography showed lung involvement in the whole group of patients, with honeycombing in nine patients (39.1%), ground-glass opacities associated with reticular opacities in eight patients (34.7%), predominance of reticular opacities in five (21.7%) and only ground-glass opacities in one patient (4.3%). CONCLUSION: The pattern of abnormal findings at high resolution CT presents high correlation with histopathologic findings, differentiating inflammatory patterns from fibrotic ones, being the first ones associated with a better therapeutic response. We have observed abnormalities suggestive of fibrosis in most cases (honeycombing and reticular opacities corresponding to 60.8%), but with a great part of cases showing patterns suggestive of an inflammatory process.