Antibodies Autoimmunity and Heart Disease |
Causes of Heart Disease |
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)
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)
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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