Subclinical dermal involvement is detectable by high frequency ultrasound even in patients with limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis

Table 1 Clinical findings in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and healthy control subjects (CNT)

	Age (years)	BMI (kg/m²)	ANA pattern (cen/spe + nuc/spe)	ENA (Scl70/RNAP/neg)	RP duration (years)	SSc duration (years)	MES (score)	US-DT total (mm)	mRSS total (score)
CNT (n = 50) mean ± SD	64.9 ± 15.1	22.3 ± 1.9	-	-	-	-	0	14.7 ± 0.5	0
lcSSc (n = 50) mean ± SD	62.5 ± 12.7	22.4 ± 1.8	33/11/6	11/1/5	12.1 ± 11.6	5.3 ± 4.9	3.2 ± 2.5	17.2 ± 1.7	4.8 ± 2.6
SSc vs CNT p value*	n.s.	n.s.	-	-	-	-	-	<0.0001	<0.0001
Early (n = 21) mean ± SD	61.3 ± 12.8	22.3 ± 2.0	14/5/2	5/0/2	6.6 ± 4.5	3.1 ± 3.5	0.7 ± 0.5	16.2 ± 1.0	3.2 ± 1.8
Active (n = 16) mean ± SD	58.6 ± 9.6	22.1 ± 1.5	12/2/2	3/1/0	13.0 ± 13.4	4.3 ± 3.7	4.4 ± 1.3	17.7 ± 1.2	5.0 ± 2.2
Late (n = 13) mean ± SD	69.2 ± 14.0	23.0 ± 2.3	7/4/2	3/0/3	20.0 ± 13.0	10.0 ± 5.0	6.0 ± 1.1	18.2 ± 2.0	7.3 ± 2.4
E vs A vs L p value**	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	0.002	0.0002	<0.0001	0.0005	<0.0001

RP Raynaud’s phenomenon, MES microangiopathy evolution score, DT dermal thickness (ultrasound evaluation), mRSS modified Rodnan skin score, SD standard deviation, E Early, A Active, L Late (patterns of microangiopathy on nailfold videocapillaroscopy), lcSSc limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis, BMI body mass index, ANA antinuclear antibodies, cen centromeric, spe + nuc speckled and nucleolar, spe speckled, ENA extractable nuclear antigen antibodies, Scl70 anti-topoisomerase antibodies, RNAP anti-RNA polymerase III autoantibodies, neg ENA-negative. *Mann-Withney U test. **Kruskal-Wallis test

ISSN: 1478-6362