title: Imaging of pulmonary involvement in rheumatic disease.
abstract: Lung disease commonly occurs in connective tissue diseases (CTD) and is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Imaging is central to the evaluation of CTD-associated pulmonary complications. In this article, a general discussion of radiologic considerations is followed by a description of the pulmonary appearances in individual CTDs, and the imaging appearances of acute and nonacute pulmonary complications. The contribution of imaging to monitoring disease, evaluating treatment response, and prognostication is reviewed. Finally, we address the role of imaging in the challenging multidisciplinary evaluation of interstitial lung disease where there is an underlying suspicion of an undiagnosed CTD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, Great Maze Pond, London SE1 9RT, UK.
authors.forename: Arjun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS, UK.
authors.forename: Simon L F
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS, UK. Electronic address: sujal.desai@nhs.net.
authors.forename: Sujal R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Desai
mesh_terms: D003240:Connective Tissue Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology; D017563:Lung Diseases, Interstitial / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000150:complications; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: Computed tomography; Connective tissue diseases; Imaging; Interstitial lung diseases