Relationship between Clinical Characteristics and Serum Tumor Markers in Connective Tissue Disease with Interstitial Lung Disease as the Initial Manifestation

Introduction Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a common complication of connective tissue disease (CTD), which seriously affects the prognosis of patients. The abnormal expression of tumor markers in non-neoplastic diseases may be related to the occurrence and development of CTD-ILD. This study aimed to explore the detailed clinical characteristics of CTD-ILD, and to analyze its internal correlation with serum tumor markers. Material and methods The clinical data of 128 patients with CTD-ILD were retrospectively analyzed. 79 of ILD patients without CTD were enrolled as the non-combined group. Clinical data included imaging manifestations, laboratory indexes and tumor markers such as carbohydrate antigen (CA) 125, CA153, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) antigen were collected. ROC curve was used to analyze the clinical value. Results The proportion of clinical manifestations such as arthralgia, rash, Raynaud’s phenomenon, dry mouth and dry eyes in the combined group was higher than the non-combined group (P < 0.05). The serum albumin and total protein levels in the combined group were lower than the non-combined group (P < 0.001). The levels of CA125, CA153, CEA, SCC and NSE in the combined group were higher than the non-combined group (P < 0.001). The AUC of combined detection of each index was 0.917, with a sensitivity of 97.47% and a specificity of 76.56%. Conclusions The main clinical manifestations for CTD-ILD patients were arthralgia, rash, Raynaud’s phenomenon, dry mouth and eyes. The combined detection of tumor markers had a high evaluation value.