Joint, bone, spine : revue du rhumatisme
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Comparative Study
Nailfold capillaroscopic findings in systemic sclerosis related lung fibrosis and in idiopathic lung fibrosis.
Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) are heterogeneous pathological conditions, which can be idiopathic or associated to other diseases, such as connective tissue diseases (CTD), especially systemic sclersosis (SSc). Both in primary and secondary forms of ILDs, fibroblastic and vascular anomalies are involved in the progressive structural destruction of lung parenchyma. Nailfold video-capillaroscopy (NFC) is a non-invasive diagnostic tool that permits detection of the main local microvascular alterations in SSc, which are an expression of the systemic vascular changes characteristic of this disease. The aim of this study is to record the range of capillaroscopic anomalies in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and to detect the main differences compared to patients with pulmonary fibrosis associated to SSc (SSc-PF). ⋯ An altered nailfold capillaroscopic pattern in IPF, as observed in this study, seems to support the hypothesis that a systemic vascular dysfunction in these patients plays a role in the pathogenesis of the disease.