Systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease is challenging to diagnose and treat. Patients and physicians can perceive the disease differently and have different views on its management. Communication issues between them can lead to suboptimal disease management. Despite a clear need for improvement in the speed and accuracy of the diagnostic workup, the heterogeneity of clinical symptoms renders the process long and challenging. When considering treatment options, physicians may be more focused on the evidence supporting a particular treatment or on a patient's pulmonary function test results, as opposed to the realities of the patient's difficulties with symptoms or the psychosocial effects of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease. Disease management plans should be determined by the patient's own preferences and goals as well as the objective clinical situation. Health care providers must consider their patients as partners on a journey in which treatment decisions are reached jointly. This review will focus on the perspectives of physicians and patients in relation to the diagnosis and management of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease. Similarities and differences in these perspectives will be identified, and strategies for achieving optimal disease management will be proposed.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1179548420913281 | DOI Listing |
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Validation of a semi-quantitative method to assess interstitial lung disease severity and progression in systemic sclerosis by standard and low-dose HRCT scans.
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Anti-fibrotic effects of thrombin inhibition in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease: Proof of concept.
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Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA.
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Rheumatology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia, 71122 Foggia, Italy.
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Results: The continued nintedanib group comprised 197 patients, and the initiated nintedanib group comprised 247 patients (231 from SENSCIS).
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