Assessment of CT quantitative characteristics derived from CT in connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease

Connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD) is a severe complication, yet early objective detection of pulmonary structural and microvascular alterations remains challenging. This study aimed to quantitatively compare pulmonary structural alterations between connective tissue disease (CTD) patients with and without interstitial lung disease (ILD) and to identify independent computed tomography (CT)-derived discriminators for ILD diagnosis by means of quantitative computed tomography (QCT).