OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to obtain cross-sectional data on capillaroscopy in an international multi-center cohort of Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) and to investigate the frequency of the capillaroscopic patterns and their disease-phenotype associations. METHODS Data collected between June 2004 and October 2011 in the EULAR Scleroderma Trials and Research (EUSTAR) registry were examine...

OBJECTIVE To further assess the construct validity of the three European Scleroderma Study Group (EScSG) preliminary activity indices for systemic sclerosis (SSc): for SSc as a whole, for diffuse SSc (dcSSc), and for limited SSc (lcSSc). METHODS 30/290 SSc clinical charts collected for the EScSG study used to develop activity criteria for SSc were selected and sent to four clinical experts in...

Department of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Sahara Hospital, Lucknow, India, 226010 [email protected] Scleroderma or progressive systemic sclerosis is diagnosed clinically by typical features of skin thickening, Raynaud’s phenomenon and visceral organ involvement, and serologically by distinct autoantibody subsets. These differentiate the disease into the ‘limited’ and ‘diffuse’ vari...

Scleroderma is a generalized autoimmune disease with variable involvement of the skin and major organs (esophagus, lung, heart and kidney). Scleroderma is essentially a skin disease that frequently involves the digestive system. In scleroderma, the esophagus is the most frequently affected organ of the digestive system, and esophageal dysmotility, reflux and stricture may be observed in the adv...

Thirty-eight patients with scleroderma (progressive systemic sclerosis) without renal failure were subjected to detailed clinical ophthalmic assessment. Abnormalities were frequent. However, many of these, including lens opacities, vitreous frosting, and arteriosclerotic changes, were considered to be age-related, and there were various incidental changes. Posterior subcapsular lens opacities i...

While a number of studies have shown short-term beneficial effects of plasmapheresis (PA) for treating systemic scleroderma (SSc), there have been no reports on the very long-term usage of PA as the sole systemic treatment intervention. We report on the case of a male patient, originally diagnosed with limited systemic scleroderma (lcSSc) in early 1990, who has been undergoing regular plasmaphe...