Left ventricular dysfunction and arrhythmias in asymptomatic patients with systemic sclerosis.

Introduction And Aims: Cardiac involvement in systemic sclerosis (SS) is frequently silent and a major cause of mortality in these patients. This work aims to study the prevalence and associations of left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) and arrhythmias in SS.

Methods And Results: Prospective study of SS patients (n=36), excluding those with symptoms of (or) cardiac disease, pulmonary arterial hypertension or cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF).