Augmented ICOS expression in patients with early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis

Augmented ICOS expression in patients with early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis.

OBJECTIVE Inducible costimulator (ICOS), expressed on activated T cells, and its ligand, ICOS ligand (ICOSL), expressed on antigen-presenting cells, have been considered a single receptor-ligand pair. Here we investigated the expression of ICOS and ICOSL in patients with SSc. METHODS ICOS expression on peripheral blood T cells, and ICOSL expression on B cells and macrophages was determined by...

Nailfold digital capillaroscopic findings in patients with diffuse and limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis

BACKGROUND Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic disease with microvascular damage. Nailfold capillaroscopy is a non-invasive method used for evaluating capillaries in SSc. Its findings could be related to the internal organ involvement and SSc course. In this study, we aimed to determine the association of the capillaroscopic patterns of nailfold capillaries with the disease subtypes of SSc, d...

Serum levels of soluble carbonic anhydrase IX are decreased in patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis compared to those with limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis.

Hypoxia may play an important role in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX) is one of the hypoxia markers and its extracellular domain can be released into the serum. However, the clinical significance of serum CA IX levels in SSc is still unknown. The aim of this study is to evaluate the possibility that serum CA IX levels can be a specific disease marker ...

Treatment outcome in early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis: the European Scleroderma Observational Study (ESOS)

OBJECTIVES The rarity of early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) makes randomised controlled trials very difficult. We aimed to use an observational approach to compare effectiveness of currently used treatment approaches. METHODS This was a prospective, observational cohort study of early dcSSc (within three years of onset of skin thickening). Clinicians selected one of four proto...

Thymoglobulin and cyclophosphamide as treatment for diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis.