Evaluation of Interstitial Lung Disease in Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies Through Semiquantitative and Quantitative Analysis of Lung Computed Tomography

Purpose: To perform a semiquantitative and quantitative analysis of interstitial lung disease (ILD), through computed tomography (CT), in different serological subgroups of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) patients, to find radiologic and clinical differences of disease related to serology. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study, which included 98 IIM patients, divided into serological subgroups: anti-aminoacyl-transfer-RNA-synthetases (anti-ARS) positive and myositis-specific autoantibodies (MSA) negative. For each baseline CT the total semiquantitative score of Warrick (WS) and the automated software (Computer-Aided Lung Informatics for Pathology Evaluation and Rating) quantitative scores interstitial lung disease % (ILD%) and vascular-related structure % (VRS%) were calculated. Pulmonary function tests included total lung capacity % (TLC%), forced vital capacity % (FVC%), and diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide % (DLCO%). Results: Inverse correlations (P < 0.001) between the radiologic scores and the functional scores DLCO% and TLC% were found, the most relevant being between ILD% and DLCO% (ρ = -0.590), VRS% and DLCO% (ρ = -0.549), and WS and DLCO% (ρ = -0.471). Positive correlations between ILD% and VRS% (ρ = 0.916; P < 0.001), WS and ILD% (ρ = 0.663; ρ < 0.001), and WS and VRS% (ρ = 0.637; P < 0.001) were obtained. Statistically significant higher values of WS, ILD%, and VRS% were found in the anti-ARS group (WS = 15; ILD% = 11; VRS% = 3.5) compared with the MSA negative one (WS = 2.5; ILD% = 0.84; VRS% = 2.2). The nonspecific interstitial pneumonia pattern was dominant. No statistically significant differences emerged at pulmonary function tests. Conclusions: In this study, ILD in anti-ARS-positive and MSA-negative groups was defined through semiquantitative and quantitative analysis of lung CT. The inverse correlations between the radiologic scores and TLC% and DLCO% (P < 0.001) confirm the role of lung CT in the evaluation of ILD in IIM.