Environmental Pollution by Benzene and PM and Clinical Manifestations of Systemic Sclerosis: A Correlation Study.

Atmospheric air pollution has been associated with a range of adverse health effects. The environment plays a causative role in the development of Systemic Sclerosis (SSc). The aim of the present study is to explore the association between particulate (PM) and benzene (B) exposure in Italian patients with systemic sclerosis and their clinical characteristics of the disease.

Prediction risk chart for scleroderma digital ulcers: a composite predictive model based on capillaroscopic, demographic and clinico-serological parameters.

Background: Digital ulcers (DU) affect 50% of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients, representing a challenging clinical problem. Despite a high negative predictive value, capillaroscopic scores proposed to select patients at risk for DU show an inadequate positive predictive value, especially in patients without previous DU.

Aim Of This Study: To increase the predictive value for DU development of capillaroscopy, through a predictive risk chart taking into account capillaroscopic, demographic, and clinico-serological parameters.

A vascular endothelial growth factor deficiency characterises scleroderma lung disease.

Objectives: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is thought to play an important role in systemic sclerosis (SSc) pathogenesis. It was found to be upregulated in the serum and in the affected skin of scleroderma patients. However, its involvement in scleroderma lung disease is not clear.

Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and progression of scleroderma interstitial lung disease.

Introduction: So far no clinical or experimental evidences clearly explain how and which systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients will experience a functional and radiological progression of interstitial lung disease (ILD).

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate whether any bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) characteristic, compared with clinical, functional and radiological parameters, is associated with the risk of progression of ILD and worse survival in SSc patients.

Methods: Lung involvement was evaluated in 110 consecutively examined SSc patients with pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT); 73 patients with evidence of ILD on HRCT underwent BAL.

β-Thymosins and interstitial lung disease: study of a scleroderma cohort with a one-year follow-up.

Background: β-thymosins play roles in cytoskeleton rearrangement, angiogenesis, fibrosis and reparative process, thus suggesting a possible involvement in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis. The aim of the study was to investigate the presence of thymosins β4, β4 sulfoxide, and β10 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of scleroderma patients with interstitial lung disease and the relation of these factors with pulmonary functional and radiological parameters.

Methods: β-thymosins concentrations were determined by reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray-mass spectrometry in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of 46 scleroderma patients with lung involvement and of 15 controls.