The Rheumatologist
COVID-19 News
  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed
  • Home
  • Conditions
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • SLE (Lupus)
    • Crystal Arthritis
      • Gout Resource Center
    • Spondyloarthritis
    • Osteoarthritis
    • Soft Tissue Pain
    • Scleroderma
    • Vasculitis
    • Systemic Inflammatory Syndromes
    • Guidelines
  • Resource Centers
    • Ankylosing Spondylitis Resource Center
    • Gout Resource Center
    • Psoriatic Arthritis Resource Center
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis Resource Center
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Resource Center
  • Drug Updates
    • Biologics & Biosimilars
    • DMARDs & Immunosuppressives
    • Topical Drugs
    • Analgesics
    • Safety
    • Pharma Co. News
  • Professional Topics
    • Ethics
    • Legal
    • Legislation & Advocacy
    • Career Development
      • Certification
      • Education & Training
    • Awards
    • Profiles
    • President’s Perspective
    • Rheuminations
    • Interprofessional Perspective
  • Practice Management
    • Billing/Coding
    • Quality Assurance/Improvement
    • Workforce
    • Facility
    • Patient Perspective
    • Electronic Health Records
    • Apps
    • Information Technology
    • From the College
    • Multimedia
      • Audio
      • Video
  • Resources
    • Issue Archives
    • ACR Convergence
      • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Resource Center
      • Rheumatoid Arthritis Resource Center
      • Gout Resource Center
      • Abstracts
      • Meeting Reports
      • ACR Convergence Home
    • American College of Rheumatology
    • ACR ExamRheum
    • Research Reviews
    • ACR Journals
      • Arthritis & Rheumatology
      • Arthritis Care & Research
      • ACR Open Rheumatology
    • Rheumatology Image Library
    • Treatment Guidelines
    • Rheumatology Research Foundation
    • Events
  • About Us
    • Mission/Vision
    • Meet the Authors
    • Meet the Editors
    • Contribute to The Rheumatologist
    • Subscription
    • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Search
You are here: Home / Articles / Evaluation & Treatment of Systemic Sclerosis-ILD in the New Decade

Evaluation & Treatment of Systemic Sclerosis-ILD in the New Decade

December 17, 2020 • By Thomas R. Collins

  • Tweet
  • Email
Print-Friendly Version / Save PDF

ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is the main cause of death of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients, and predicting its progression, which can fluctuate dramatically from patient to patient, has proven to be a complex endeavor.

You Might Also Like
  • FDA Approves Tocilizumab to Treat Systemic Sclerosis-Associated ILD
  • Treatment Tips for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension & ILD
  • From the Expert: New Advances in Treatment of Systemic Scleroderma
Explore This Issue
January 2021
Also By This Author
  • EULAR: Identify Arthritis Early, Treat it Effectively

But a deepening understanding of how to monitor patients for ILD severity, as well as brightening prospects for therapy, were discussed in a Nov. 6 session at ACR Convergence.

ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Important Role of Monitoring
Monitoring is crucial to helping clinicians help their patients achieve the best outcomes possible, said Anna Hoffmann-Vold, MD, PhD, head of SSc research and SSc outpatient clinic at Oslo University Hospital, Norway. Recent research she led showed the unpredictable nature of ILD progression, pointing to the need to avoid relying only on baseline characteristics and instead track the entire picture of each patient.

Using the European Scleroderma Trials and Research (EUSTAR) database, researchers assessed the lung function of 826 patients with SSc-ILD, 535 of whom had multiple forced vital capacity (FVC) measurements available over an average of five years of follow-up.1 Over each 12-month period, about a third of the patients showed progressive ILD, but only a small portion of them showed rapidly progressive disease with FVC decline in every consecutive period.

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Most patients, researchers found, followed a path of long, slow decline, with periods of stability, or even improvement, followed by decline. In fact, they found a third of the patients had no episodes of FVC decline. Over five years, the strongest predictors of FVC decline were male sex, a higher modified Rodnan skin score and reflux or dysphagia symptoms.

With this amount of variation in the clinical course of SSc-ILD, baseline high-resolution computed tomography is only partly helpful in predicting how patients will fare, Dr. Hoffmann-Vold said, although having no ILD at baseline is a good prognostic marker, with few of these patients going on to develop SSc-ILD.

As clinicians continue to assess the severity of ILD in their patients, a variety of measures should be used, Dr. Hoffmann-Vold stressed.

ad goes here:advert-3
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

“Don’t rely just on one measure to assess severity and also, even more importantly, assess the risk of progression in your patients,” she said.

Dr. Hoffmann-Vold pointed specifically to oxygen desaturation on exercise tests. A study of SSc-ILD patients found that combining this metric with whether the patient has had arthritis seems to be a powerful predictor of ILD progression.2 Those who desaturated to 94% or lower during a six-minute walk test had a 36% chance of ILD progression over the next 12 months, and that finding, along with having had arthritis, meant an 86% chance of ILD progression, she said.

Pages: 1 2 3 | Single Page

Filed Under: ACR Convergence, Conditions, Meeting Reports Tagged With: ACR Convergence 2020, ILD, interstitial lung disease (ILD), Systemic sclerosisIssue: January 2021

You Might Also Like:
  • FDA Approves Tocilizumab to Treat Systemic Sclerosis-Associated ILD
  • Treatment Tips for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension & ILD
  • From the Expert: New Advances in Treatment of Systemic Scleroderma
  • 2013 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting: Strides Made in Understanding Systemic Sclerosis

Meeting Abstracts

Browse and search abstracts from the ACR Convergence and ACR/ARP Annual Meetings going back to 2012.

Visit the Abstracts site »

Simple Tasks

Learn more about the ACR’s public awareness campaign and how you can get involved. Help increase visibility of rheumatic diseases and decrease the number of people left untreated.

Visit the Simple Tasks site »

ACR Convergence

Don’t miss rheumatology’s premier scientific meeting for anyone involved in research or the delivery of rheumatologic care or services.

Visit the ACR Convergence site »

The Rheumatologist newsmagazine reports on issues and trends in the management and treatment of rheumatic diseases. The Rheumatologist reaches 11,500 rheumatologists, internists, orthopedic surgeons, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who practice, research, or teach in the field of rheumatology.

About Us / Contact Us / Advertise / Privacy Policy / Terms of Use

  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed

Copyright © 2006–2021 American College of Rheumatology. All rights reserved.

ISSN 1931-3268 (print)
ISSN 1931-3209 (online)

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
This site uses cookies: Find out more.