Screening value of lung ultrasound and pleural shear wave elastography in connective tissue disease–related interstitial lung disease: a preliminary study

Objective To explore the diagnostic value of lung ultrasound (LUS) and pleural shear wave elastography (SWE) for connective tissue disease–interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD). Methods We selected 104 patients diagnosed with connective tissue disease (CTD) at our hospital. All patients underwent LUS, SWE, and high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). With HRCT as the imaging gold standard for diagnosis, patients were categorized into CTD-ILD and CTD-non-ILD groups. We employed paired chi-square tests to compare the diagnostic differences between HRCT and LUS for ILD. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to assess the diagnostic value of pleural SWE for ILD. Correlation analysis was performed between pleural elasticity values and lung ultrasound scores. Results The sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio of LUS for diagnosing CTD-ILD were 93.3%, 86.2%, 6.761, and 0.078, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the results between HRCT and LUS ( P = 1.000), with a kappa value of 0.720 ( P