Treatment decision-making in diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis: a patient’s perspective

Thymoglobulin and cyclophosphamide as treatment for diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis.

B-cell depletion with rituximab: a promising treatment for diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis

Recent preclinical and clinical studies lend support to the notion that B-cell depletion is a promising therapeutic target in patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis. A recent open-label trial provides further evidence showing marked effects of rituximab treatment on skin thickening, functional ability, and disease activity in conjunction with effects on lesional and circulating B ce...

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...

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...

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...