From January 2012 to December 2021, 67 patients with IgG4-RD who were diagnosed or suspected in various departments of the First Medical Center of PLA General Hospital and underwent chest CT examinations were continuously collected. This research was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the First Medical Center of PLA General Hospital and conforms to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.All patients gave informed consent.
1.1 Clinical data Consecutive 67 patients with IgG4-RD who were diagnosed or suspected and underwent chest CT examination were collected from various departments of the First Medical Center of PLA General Hospital from January 2012 to December 2021, including 13 cases of plain-enhanced chest CT scan and 54 cases of plain chest CT scan. This article analyzed the patients’ clinical, serological and imaging characteristics and treatment responses (as shown in Figure 1). Clinical data showed that there were 45 males and 22 females in this study, with an M/F ratio of 23:11; the age was 25-80 years old, and the average age was 59.63±10.7 years old. The clinical manifestations were diverse, and almost half of the patients were initially diagnosed as IgG4-RD in the rheumatology department. There might appear clinical symptoms in the chest or not, and the symptoms included cough, shortness of breath, chest pain and asthma The average duration of symptoms before diagnosis was 20 months (ranging from 1 to 204 months). Nearly half of the patients (25/67) had a history of smoking. Exclusion criteria: (1) Exclude patients with other lung diseases: including lung cancer, lung infection and interstitial lung disease. (2) Exclude other diseases (such as Sjogren's syndrome, etc.) that can cause lung involvement similar to IgG4-RD. (3) Exclude patients with missing chest CT scans or unable to be re-examined.
Chest findings of IgG4-RD in this study included mediastinal lymphadenopathy, fibrotic mediastinitis, pleural lesions, airway or pulmonary parenchymatous diseases, and pericardial lesions, which were confirmed by clinical manifestations, serological examination, and imaging or pathological findings.
Fig 1 Inclusion flow of IgG4-RLD patients
2 Diagnosis of IgG4-RD
IgG4-RD is an autoimmune disease with multiple organ involvement and different clinical manifestations. Its diagnosis is a comprehensive result based on clinical, serological, radiological and histopathological findings. None of these findings alone provide clear evidence for diagnosis. Cross-sectional imaging (ultrasound, CT and MRI) is an important part of the diagnosis and treatment of IgG4-RD. In this study, patients were classified according to the comprehensive diagnostic criteria of IgG4-RD in 2011 and the classification criteria of American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) in 2019 (score 20) [8, 9]. Age, gender, time of diagnosis, organ involvement, biological assessment, treatment, and outcomes were collected.
Chest CT examination of confirmed and suspected patients was performed according todiagnostic criteria of IgG4-RLD reported by Matsui et al. (10, 11) (as shown in Table 1). Abnormalities were described according to Fleischner vocabulary (12) as follows: bronchiolitis ( tree-in-bud pattern or alveolar nodules), bronchiectasis, solid nodules, ground-glass opacity (GGO), consolidation, pleural effusion or pleural thickening, peribronchovascular thickening, mediastinal lymph nodes, bronchial mucoid impaction, interlobular septal thickening, honeycomb and grid-like changes, structural deformation and mediastinal fibrosis (paravertebral soft tissue zone).
Table 1. Summary of diagnostic criteria for IgG4-RRD.
1. Abnormal shadow on chest CT
Hilar/mediastinal lymphadenopathy
Thickening of bronchial wall, bronchovascular bundle, interlobular septal wall
Nodular shadow, infiltrative shadow, pleural thickening/effusion
2. Elevated serum IgG4 concentration (≥135 mg/dl)
3. Pathological findings satisfying the following two items or more: (a: ≥3 items, b: 2 items)
1) Dense lymphoplasmacytic cell infiltration into respiratory organ tissues
2) IgG4+IgG+cell ratio >40% and/or >10 IgG4+cells/high power field
3) Obliterative phlebitis or obliterative arteritis
4) Characteristic fibrosis, typically storiform pattern
4. Presence of lesions in the extrathoracic organs satisfying the diagnostic criteria of IgG4-related disease
(reference finding)hypocomplementemia
Definite diagnosis (definite):1+2+3a, 1+2+3b+4
Probable diagnosis (probable):1+2+4,1+2+3b+reference finding.
Possible diagnosis (possible):1+2+3b
1.3 Inspection Methods
All 67 patients underwent plain chest scan or plain chest scan plus enhanced chest scan using Philips Brilliance 256 iCT (Netherlands) or Siemens Sensation Cardiac (Germany). The patient laid in the supine position, with arms raised. The scan was performed in a head-advanced way, ranging from the apex of the lung to 3cm below the diaphragm. The whole chest CT scan was completed when the patient held his breath at the end of inhalation. Scanning parameters: tube voltage 120 kVp, automatic tube current modulation, reconstructive thickness 1.0-1.5 mm. Lung window: the window width was 1600HU and the window position was -600HU; Mediastinal window: the window width was 400HU and the window position was 40HU. Contrast-enhanced scanning was performed with 70-90ml of non-ionic contrast medium (iohexol or iopromide, 300mgI/mL) at a flow rate of 3.5 ml/s. Arterial phase and venous phase scans were performed 25-30s and 60-65s after injection of contrast medium respectively. Conditions of the reexamination were consistent with those of the first scanning. After analysis, the images were sent to the picture archiving and communication system (PACS). Images remained in the original size and were shown randomly. The location, size, and shape of the lesions, lung interface, edge, length of burr, relationship with bronchus, blood vessel and pleura, lesion composition, calcification, surrounding status, pleural effusion, hilar and mediastinal lymph node enlargement were evaluated by two experienced senior radiologists using a double-blind method. When opinions differed, a consensus was reached through consultation.
1.4 Statistics
In this study, SPSS (V24.0) and R (4.0.2) were used for statistical analysis. Quantitative data in normal distribution was described by mean ± standard deviation (SD), quantitative data in non-normal distribution was described by median and quartile spacing (IQRs), and qualitative data was described by %; Spearman correlation analysis (variables that did not follow a normal distribution) was used for correlation analysis between pulmonary imaging abnormalities and initial symptoms and sero-immunity abnormalities. Logistic regression was used to explore the abnormal immune indexes and lung imaging changes that affected the first symptoms of the lung. P < 0.05 referred statistically significant difference.