Pictorial review: Thoracic involvement in connective tissue diseases: radiological patterns and follow-up

Renal involvement in autoimmune connective tissue diseases

Connective tissue diseases (CTDs) are a heterogeneous group of disorders that share certain clinical presentations and a disturbed immunoregulation, leading to autoantibody production. Subclinical or overt renal manifestations are frequently observed and complicate the clinical course of CTDs. Alterations of kidney function in Sjögren syndrome, systemic scleroderma (SSc), auto-immune myopathies...

Lung Involvement in Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Diseases: A Rheumatology Perspective

Objectives: Studies pointing out the occurrence of Interstitial Lung Diseases (ILD) in Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Diseases (UCTD) have been so far derived from patients admitted to Respiratory Medicine Units. We undertook the present prospective study to investigate for the presence of lung involvement, patients admitted to a Rheumatology Unit and diagnosed as UCTD. Materials and Method...

Lung involvement in connective tissue diseases: a comprehensive review and a focus on rheumatoid arthritis.

The lungs are frequently involved in Connective Tissue Diseases (CTDs). Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is one of the most common pleuropulmonary manifestations that affects prognosis significantly. In practice, rheumatologists and other physicians tend to underestimate the impact of CTD-ILDs and diagnose respiratory impairment when it has reached an irreversible fibrotic stage. Early investiga...

Five-year follow-up of 165 Italian patients with undifferentiated connective tissue diseases.

OBJECTIVE To study those conditions with a proven or hypothesised immunologic pathogenesis and denominated under a working definition of undifferentiated connective tissue diseases (UCTD). METHODS A multicentre prospective study was organised involving 10 tertiary referral centers of internal medicine in Italy, with the aim of describing the natural history of UCTD and the prevalence of its d...

Connective tissue diseases.