Breathomics to monitor interstitial lung disease associated with systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an auto-immune disease of unknown origin characterized by an inflammatory process associated with vascular damages and collagen deposition. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) highly prevalent in SSc (SSc-ILD) is known to be the leading cause of death and its treatment requires aggressive multimodal therapy 1. In this context, there is a major clinical need to identify significant SSc-ILD at the earliest stage, especially for patients at risk to develop a progressive form of the disease. Nowadays, few biomarkers can classify patients at risk to develop SSc-ILD, most of them are blood-based and detected in the last clinical stage of the disease. Previously, we have demonstrated that SSc patients exhibit a specific signature of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) compared to healthy subjects (HS) 2. In this prospective study, we aimed to identify the potential of VOCs to predict the ILD phenotype. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict Of Interest: Outside of this submitted work, R.L. received unrestricted research grants from GSK, AstraZeneca and Chiesi and lecture or adboard fees from GSK, AZ. Conflict Of Interest: Outside of this submitted work, J.G. received consulting and lectures fees and support for attending meetings from AZ, Janssens, Chiesi, Roche, GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim and adboard fees from GSK, Chiesi, Janssens, AZ and MSD; has patents from Radiomics (Oncoradiomics SA). Conflict Of Interest: Outside of this submitted work, BA reports travel support from Abbvie. Conflict Of Interest: The rest of the authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.