Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Background: Patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) may be burdened by increased cardiovascular (CV) risk due to accelerated atherosclerosis (ATS) due to systemic inflammation, and vascular impairment. Objectives: To evaluate CV risk in SSc patients SSc compared to healthy controls (HC) and to assess its association with disease-specific features. Methods: 92 patients with SSc (81 females; mean age 52; mean disease duration 6.8 years; dcSSc: n=28, lcSSc: n=64) and 197 HC (147 females, mean age 56.7) were included, all with no history of CV disease (angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular, and peripheral arterial vascular events). Disease activity and organ involvement were evaluated in SSc. In all participants comorbidities and current treatment were recorded, examinations of carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), pulse wave velocity (PWV), ankle-brachial index (ABI), and body composition (by densitometry (DXA) and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA)) were performed. The risk of fatal CV events was evaluated by the Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE, charts for the European population) and its modifications: SCORE multiplied by the coefficient 1.5 (mSCORE), and SCORE2. Results: SSc patients had a trend to higher prevalence of dyslipidemia (p=0.063) and significantly more often prediabetes (pConclusion: This cross-sectional case-control study in SSc patients demonstrated a significantly increased risk of subclinical ATS in SSc compared to HC, although there was an opposite trend in CV risk estimated by calculated SCORE. The CV risk in SSc was associated especially with age, disease duration, and HbA1c levels, among others. Scoring systems underestimated the CV risk (when compared to ultrasound findings), while SCORE2 was significantly more accurate than SCORE. REFERENCES: NIL. Acknowledgements: Supported by MHCR (023728; NV18-01-00161A; NU21-01-00146). Disclosure of Interests: None declared.
Oreska et al. (Sat,) studied this question.