Scleroderma Types Systemic Symptoms Cardiac

Research about Scleroderma Cardiac (Heart) Involvement

Antibodies

Clinical Manifestation and Incidence of Cardiopulmonary Complications in Early Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) Patients with Different Antibody Profiles. It was found that the presence of SSc-specific autoantibodies was associated with a distinctive clinical presentation and cumulative internal organ involvement, even in the early phase of the disease. PubMed, J Clin Med Res, 2019 Jul;11(7):524-531. (Also see Antibodies)

Predicting cardiopulmonary involvement in patients with systemic sclerosis: complementary value of nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) patterns and disease–specific autoantibodies. All SSc–specific auto–antibodies were found, with ACA and anti-Scl-70 being the most prevalent and the association between NVC–pattern and heart/lung involvement was independent of specific anti-ENA antibodies, which might indicate microangiopathy is an important cause of organ involvement. PubMed, Rheumatology (Oxford), 2017 Jul 1;56(7):1081-1088. (Also see Antibodies and Nailfold Videocapillaroscopy)

Autoimmunity and Heart Disease

Free light chains (FLC) of immunoglobulins in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc): correlations with lung involvement and inflammatory milieu. FLC levels are elevated in SSc and high levels are associated with lung involvement and with a higher degree of inflammation, supporting a possible role of B cell activation in the pathophysiology of the disease. PubMed, J Clin Pathol, 01/31/2018. (Also see Pulmonary Fibrosis Correlations)

Causes of Heart Disease in Systemic Autoimmune Diseases

No changes in N-terminal pro–brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in a longitudinal cohort of patients with systemic sclerosis–associated pulmonary arterial hypertension on therapy with bosentan. NT-proBNP may lack 'sensitivity to change', but further studies are warranted to assess the role of NT-proBNP as a biomarker of the therapeutic response in larger cohorts of SSc patients. PubMed, Int J Rheum Dis, 2017 Jan;20(1):90-96.

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