Assessment of Cardiopulmonary Manifestations and its Correlation with Semi-quantitative scoring of High-resolution Computed Tomography in Patients with Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases.

Purpose: Autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARD) are groups of diseases that are commonly associated with cardiac and pulmonary manifestations and may affect the morbidity and mortality of the patients. This study aimed to the assessment of cardiopulmonary manifestations and its correlation with the semi-quantitative scoring of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) in ARD patients. Methods: and patients: The study included 30 patients (mean age 42.2±9.76 years) diagnosed with ARD [10 patients were scleroderma (SSc), 10 patients were rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and 10 patients were systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)]. All patients fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of the American College of Rheumatology and underwent spirometry, echocardiography, disease activity or disability scores, and chest HRCT. The HRCT was assessed by a semi-quantitative score for parenchymal abnormalities including ground glass opacity (GGO), fibrosis (F), and honeycombing (HC). Results: : The total lung score by HRCT was 14.8±8.78 (mean±SD). There were statistically significant positive correlations between ESR (r =0.528, p=0.003), CRP (r=0.439, p =0.015) and ESPAP (r=0.459,p=0.011) and total lung score and significant negative correlation between PaO 2 (r=-0.395, P=0.031), FVC% (r=-0.687, p=0.001), Tricuspid E(r= -0.370, p=0.044), Tricuspid E/è (r= -0.397,p=0.03), TAPSE (r= -0.405, p=0.027), MPI-TDI(r= -0.428, p=0.018) and RV Global strain(r= -0.567, p=0.001) and total lung score. There was no significant correlation between the total lung score and any of the disease scores. Conclusion: The semi-quantitative score is a reliable method that correlated with lung and RV functions.