{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,2]],"date-time":"2026-01-02T07:49:56Z","timestamp":1767340196396,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,16]],"date-time":"2020-04-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1586995200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is the main cause of death in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients. Usually, patients have lung involvement characterized by ground glass opacities (GGOs), but honeycombing (HC) is also possible. The Wells score is a semi-quantitative index, which is able to assess ILD by distinguishing its main components. The aim of this work is to evaluate the Wells score in relation to the disease activity (DA) index. We enrolled 40 consecutive SSc-ILD patients (26 diffuse cutaneous form, dcSSc, and 14 limited form, lcSSc). All patients were evaluated by the European Scleroderma Study Group (ESSG) index, high-resolution computed tomography, transthoracic echocardiogram, pulmonary function tests (PTSs), and nailfold videocapillaroscopy for the number of microhemorrhages (NEMO) score. In our study, the total extent of ILD (TE-ILD), fibrosis and GGOs correlated with dyspnea (p = 0.03, 0.01 and 0.01 respectively), but not with the ESSG index. Considering only the dcSSc patients, TE-ILD and GGOs correlated with the ESSG index (r = 0.5 p = 0.009), while fibrosis grade correlated with disease duration and systolic pulmonary artery pressure. In conclusion, our data suggest that GGO correlates with DA, while fibrosis may be a sign of disease damage. The quantification of pulmonary involvement using the Wells score can be a useful tool for assessing the appropriate treatment in SSc patients.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics10040225","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,16]],"date-time":"2020-04-16T13:01:39Z","timestamp":1587042099000},"page":"225","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Quantification of Ground Glass Opacities Can Be Useful to Describe Disease Activity in Systemic Sclerosis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Domenico","family":"Sambataro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Artroreuma S.R.L., Outpatient of Rheumatology Associated with the National Health System corso S. Vito 53, 95030 Mascalucia, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Internal Medicine Unit, Cannizzaro Hospital, University of Catania, via Messina 829, 95100 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9933-1202","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gianluca","family":"Sambataro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Artroreuma S.R.L., Outpatient of Rheumatology Associated with the National Health System corso S. Vito 53, 95030 Mascalucia, Italy"},{"name":"Regional Referral Centre for Rare Lung Diseases, A. O. U. \u201cPoliclinico-Vittorio Emanuele\u201d Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Francesca","family":"Pignataro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Scleroderma Clinic, Department of Rheumatology, ASST G. Pini-CTO, 20122 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wanda","family":"Maglione","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Scleroderma Clinic, Department of Rheumatology, ASST G. Pini-CTO, 20122 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2944-2729","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lorenzo","family":"Malatino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Internal Medicine Unit, Cannizzaro Hospital, University of Catania, via Messina 829, 95100 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Carlo","family":"Vancheri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Regional Referral Centre for Rare Lung Diseases, A. O. U. \u201cPoliclinico-Vittorio Emanuele\u201d Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3606-3404","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michele","family":"Colaci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Internal Medicine Unit, Cannizzaro Hospital, University of Catania, via Messina 829, 95100 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nicoletta","family":"Del Papa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Regional Referral Centre for Rare Lung Diseases, A. O. U. \u201cPoliclinico-Vittorio Emanuele\u201d Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"940","DOI":"10.1136\/ard.2006.066068","article-title":"Changes in causes of death in systemic sclerosis, 1972\u20132002","volume":"66","author":"Steen","year":"2007","journal-title":"Ann. Rheum. Dis."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"198","article-title":"Systemic sclerosis: an update","volume":"66","author":"Varga","year":"2008","journal-title":"Bull. NYU Hosp. Jt. 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