Brief report: successful pregnancies but a higher risk of preterm births in patients with systemic sclerosis: an Italian multicenter study.

Objective: To assess fetal and maternal outcomes in women with systemic sclerosis (SSc).

Methods: Prospectively collected data on 99 women with SSc from 25 Italian centers were analyzed retrospectively. Women with SSc were observed during 109 pregnancies (from 2000 to 2011), and outcomes were compared to those in the general obstetric population (total of 3,939 deliveries).

Decompensated chronic heart failure: increased liver stiffness measured by means of transient elastography.

Purpose: To analyze transient elastography-measured liver stiffness in patients with acute decompensated heart failure to describe variations in liver stiffness measurements and assess their relationship with the patients' clinical course and laboratory data.

Materials And Methods: This study was approved by the local institutional review board, and all of the subjects gave verbal informed consent. Twenty-seven hospitalized patients with heart failure with no signs of liver disease (mean age, 79 years ± 12 [standard deviation]; 12 men [mean age, 78 years ± 11], 15 women [mean age, 80 years ± 12]) underwent liver stiffness and N-terminal proβ brain natriuretic peptide (NTproβBNP) assessments at admission, and 24 patients underwent stiffness measurements at discharge.