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Background: despite recent advances in understanding the pathobiology of systemic sclerosis (SSc), cardio-vascular burden remains a challenge in daily practice. Echocardiography emerges as a valuable non-invasive technique extensively recommended for the screening, evaluation and monitoring of cardiac involvement (CI) in different SSc settings. Objectives: the main aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and the type of cardiac involvement (clinical/subclinical; primary/secondary) in SSc and to identify potential relation with disease subsets, activity and severity. Methods: cross-sectional study in 665 consecutive SSc (fulfilling 2013 ACR/EULAR classification, attending the outpatient rheumatology at least once. Patients were assessed according to a standardized protocol comprising demographics, SSc-related clinical and immunologic parameters, disease activity and severity; cardiac involvement (systolic and diastolic dysfunction, pericardial disease, myocardial ischemia, pulmonary hypertension, valve damage) was evaluated by 2D transthoracic Doppler-echocardiography (TTE). Statistical analysis was done in GraphPad Prism 8, pResults: CI was detected in 296 SSc (44,6%) patients with diffuse cutaneous (dcSSc) developing earlier CI compared with limited (lcSSc) (pConclusion: Patients with SSc (diffuse or limited) are at increased risk of developing either clinical or subclinical cardiovascular manifestations as demonstrated by echocardiographic studies. A systematic TTE assessment is routinely recommended for the screening and monitoring of cardiac events. REFERENCES: NIL. Acknowledgements: NIL. Disclosure of Interests: None declared.
Perretta et al. (Sat,) studied this question.