Analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid proteome from systemic sclerosis patients with or without functional, clinical and radiological signs of lung fibrosis

Table 1 Demographic, clinical, immunological and functional characteristics of scleroderma patients

Characteristic	SSc_Fib+	SSc_Fib-
Number	9	6
Age, years (mean ± SD)	55.6 ± 10.3	50.5 ± 9.6
Cutaneous involvement
Lc SSc (percentage)	1 (11.1)	4 (66.7)
Dc SSc (percentage)	8 (89.9)	2 (33.3)
Skin score (mean ± SD)	17.0 ± 8.0	10.0 ± 6.0
Autoantibodies
ANA positive (percentage)	9 (100)	6 (100)
Anti-Scl70 positive (percentage)	7 (77.7)	2 (33)
Lung function test
FVC, percentage predicted (mean ± SD)	80.9 ± 11.7^a	118.7 ± 11.6
TLCO, percentage predicted (mean ± SD)	60.01 ± 12.6^a	72.03 ± 13.8
Kazerooni score	10.0 ± 5	0

Skin score and Kazerooni score for fibrosis were determined as described previously [9,11]. SSc_Fib+, systemic sclerosis patients with functional lung fibrosis and signs of lung fibrosis on high-resolution computed tomography; SSc_Fib-, SSc patients with no signs and symptoms of lung involvement; Lc SSc, limited cutaneous SSc; Dc SSc, diffuse cutaneous SSc; ANA, antinuclear antibodies; anti-Scl70, anti-topoisomerase I antibodies; FVC, forced vital capacity; TLCO, carbon monoxide transfer. ^aDecrease more than 20% with regard to the expected TLCO or FVC values.