A Lung Ultrasound Score for Assessing Connective Tissue Disease-Related Interstitial Lung Disease: Performance and Comparison With Computed Tomography Quantification

This study evaluated the diagnostic performance of a quantitative Lung Ultrasound (LUS) score and its correlation with Quantitative Computed Tomography (QCT) parameters in patients with Connective Tissue Disease-Related Interstitial Lung Disease (CTD-ILD). Analyzing 206 participants, the LUS score demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing ILD and preclinical ILD. The results showed that LUS scores strongly correlated with the fibrosis extent measured by QCT (r=0.784). In conclusion, LUS is a valuable non-invasive tool for the early diagnosis and extent assessment of CTD-ILD. These findings highlight the potential of lung ultrasound as a complementary modality to CT, particularly for non-invasive and accessible assessment of ILD severity. In this study, AVIEW Lung Texture software was utilized to automatically segment lung parenchyma and quantify ILD-related patterns, supporting consistent fibrosis assessment.