Brief Report: Whole-Exome Sequencing to Identify Rare Variants and Gene Networks That Increase Susceptibility to Scleroderma in African Americans.

Objective: Whole-exome sequencing (WES) studies in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients of European American (EA) ancestry have identified variants in the ATP8B4 gene and enrichment of variants in genes in the extracellular matrix (ECM)-related pathway that increase SSc susceptibility. This study was undertaken to evaluate the association of the ATP8B4 gene and the ECM-related pathway with SSc in a cohort of African American (AA) patients.

Methods: SSc patients of AA ancestry were enrolled from 23 academic centers across the US under the Genome Research in African American Scleroderma Patients consortium.

Association between depression and coronary artery calcification in women with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objectives: To determine the associations between depression, cardiovascular risk factors and coronary artery calcification (CAC) in women with SLE and controls.

Methods: CAC was measured using electron-beam CT (EBCT). Traditional, inflammatory and lupus-related risk factors as well as depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-CES-D) were measured at a single study visit in 161 women with SLE and 161 age- and race frequency-matched female healthy controls.