Pitt Pediatrics congratulates Jonathan C. Li, MD, for his recent publication in Diagnostics, titled, “Pulmonary Nodules in Juvenile Systemic Sclerosis: A Case-Series from the National Registry for Childhood Onset Scleroderma (NRCOS)”. Li is currently a resident physician in the Combined Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program. This paper was co-authored with Kathryn S. Torok, MD, of the Division of Rheumatology and Franziska J. Rosser, MD, MPH of the Division of Pulmonology. Sameh Tadros, MD, of the Department of Radiology at UPMC also contributed. 
In this research project, Li et al. looked at the standard practice of radiologic screening of juvenile systemic sclerosis (jSSc) at diagnosis. As jSSc is a systemic inflammatory and fibrotic autoimmune disease that frequently causes interstitial lung disease, adult guidelines typically recommend obtaining a screening high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan at the time of diagnosis. The goal is to detect the disease at an early stage, however, in adults more screenings prior to a specific later stage of disease progression can actually more commonly detect unclear pulmonary results. The goal, therefore, was to evaluate these unclear pulmonary results from HRCT in pediatric patients presenting with jSSc and determine if any trends exist among the prevalence and characteristics of detected pulmonary nodules.
After reviewing the medical records of 98 patients with jSSc or early jSSc diagnosis, results demonstrated that nodules are shown in HRCT scans in children, and may be associated with more severe disease and/or esophageal dysfunction. This further indicates that more work is needed to provide guidance on radiologic follow-up and clinical management of pulmonary nodules in jSSc.
Congrats to Li, Torok, Rosser, and Tadros on this exciting research. Follow Pitt Pediatrics for further updates on ongoing research and publications.