Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare condition of the immune system with an unknown cause. It is characterized by thickening of the connective tissue throughout the body. Currently, SSc affects at least 20,000 Canadians. These patients often develop interstitial lung disease (ILD), a progressive scarring disease of the lung that causes shortness of breath and is a leading cause of death in patients with SSc. SSc-ILD has few effective and well-tolerated treatment options, including medications that are costly and have limited benefit. In addition, the current methods of measuring ILD severity are not specific, which decreases the chance that the disease is treated effectively. A new more direct method of measuring disease severity is through an imaging technique called computed tomography (CT), which provides detailed images of the entire lungs. Previously, CT scans have been visually assessed to evaluate disease extent. However, it is a subjective and time-consuming process, restricting its everyday use by doctors. More recently, computer algorithms have been used to automatically assess disease severity based on the lung density of CT scans. In the proposed study, we will develop a new computer based approach to accurately identify areas of abnormal lung and track them over time. This new method will dramatically increase the ability to detect early or subtle changes in disease progression. Our work will provide a better understanding of how SSc-ILD develops, along with new strategies for disease monitoring. The findings of our study will have significant implications for both patient care and clinical trial design in SSc-ILD, with further implications for the management of other ILD subtypes.