The purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical utility of specific autoantibody testing in unmasking an underlying connective tissue disorder in patients who present with interstitial lung disease and found to have weak positive ANA (1:400 titre) with no overt connective tissue disease manifestations OR borderline/negative ANA with some clinical suggestion of connective tissue disease.
It has been well established that patients with connective tissue disease associated interstitial lung disease respond better to immunosuppressive therapy, and have a better outcome compared to patients with idiopathic interstitial pneumonias. This makes it imperative to identify this group of patients for management and prognostication. Unfortunately some of these patients do not demonstrate overt clinical manifestations of connective tissue disease and our current available autoantibody screen does not detect all potential autoantibodies present. We would like to test for specific autoantibodies in this group of patients to evaluate its clinical utility in identifying covert connective tissue diseases associated with interstitial lung disease.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
20
Singapore General Hospital
Singapore, Singapore
Clinical utility of specific autoantibody testing
Utility of specific autoantibodies to diagnose underlying connective tissue disease in patients presenting with interstitial lung disease who do not demonstrate overt clinical manifestations of connective tissue disease and our current available autoantibody screen does not detect all potential autoantibodies present.
Time frame: 3 months
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