Are troponin and B-type natriuretic peptides useful biomarkers for the diagnosis of systemic sclerosis heart involvement? A systematic literature review.

Background: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) heart involvement (SHI) is a leading cause of SSc-associated mortality and once clinically overt, carries a very poor prognosis. There remain no established diagnostic criteria for SHI. This study aimed to systematically review the literature regarding the role of cardiac troponin (cTn) and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) or N-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in the diagnosis of SHI.

Significance of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies in systemic sclerosis.

Background: Up to 12% of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) have anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA). However, the majority of these patients do not manifest ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and the significance of ANCA in these patients is unclear. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of ANCA in a well-characterised SSc cohort and to examine the association between ANCA and SSc clinical characteristics, other autoantibodies, treatments and mortality.