Lung Damage in Systemic Scleroderma

Abstract

A brief review on respiratory damages in systemic scleroderma (SDS) is presented. The characteristic of the most frequent pathology – interstitial lung injury (ILI) is given. Pulmonary hypertension, pleural lesions, tuberculosis, secondary tumors are also described. Multispiral computed tomography in patients with SDS allows not only to identify the characteristic symptoms of ILI, but also to assess the extent of the lesion and the stage of development of the pathological process in the lungs for the timely treatment of ILI. In the two given clinical observations, lung involvement or ILI was the debut of systemic scleroderma and was ahead of other clinical symptoms of the disease; the course of alveolitis was progressive in nature, there was a significant decrease of lung volumes and an increase of fibrosis.