Silent cardiovascular involvement in patients with diffuse scleroderma: A controlled cross-sectional study
Arthritis Care & Research , 08/21/2012
Clinical Article
Turiel M et al. – This study showed that those systemic sclerosis patients without any clinical evidence of cardiovascular disease seem to have subclinical atherosclerosis, which was suggested by early impairment of coronary microcirculation and macrovascular involvement.
Methods- The study involved 20 patients (two males, 18 females; mean age 52.96±12.51 years) with diffuse SSc but no signs or symptoms of CV disease (CVD), and 20 age- and gender-matched controls.
- All underwent a dipyridamole echocardiographic stress test which included a determination of CFR, and an evaluation of cIMT, arterial stiffness and plasma ADMA levels.
- All the arterial wall measurements of the diffuse SSc group were significantly different from those of controls and both right and left cIMT, pulse wave velocity (PWV), and stiffness index β were also all significantly elevated in SSc patients compared to healthy controls.
- Moreover, in patients with diffuse SSc CFR was significantly lower (P=0.0033) and plasma ADMA levels higher (P<0.0001) than in healthy controls.
