CLINICAL PORTRAIT OF PATIENTS WITH SYSTEMIC SCLEROSIS

Yatsyshyn R.I., Cherniuk N.V.

• Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University

Summary. Aim. To describe the clinical phenotype of Ukrainian patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) with or without interstitial lung disease (ILD). Methods. Participants meeting the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) criteria for SSc were divided into two groups. The first consisted of patients meeting the criteria for ILD, the second, respectively, patients without ILD. All individuals underwent an objective general clinical and instrumental examination. All data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Results. Of 52 patients with SSc, who were divided into two groups depending on the presence of interstitial lung disease (ILD), 23 patients (44.2%) had ILD; the second group included 29 patients (55.8%). Women predominated in both groups. The average age of the participants was 48.6 (33.4–62.5) years. Patients with ILD were older with a mean age of 52.5 years compared to those without ILD with a mean age of 44.2 years (p=0.015). The duration of the disease before diagnosis ranged from 1.0 to 5.4 years. In patients with ILD, the mean time to diagnosis was 2.1 years, compared with 3.3 years in those without ILD (p=0,125). Overall disease duration ranged from 2.4 to 15.7 years and was similar in both groups. Patients with ILD had a higher prevalence of diffuse skin lesions (47.8% vs. 24.1%) and a higher Rodnan skin condition score (11.0 vs. 7.0) compared to those without ILD (p=0,002 and p=0.010, respectively). Patients with ILD also had a higher prevalence of cardiofibrosis (86.9% vs. 62.1%, p=0.015). Conclusions. The prevalence of interstitial lung disease in a cohort of patients with systemic scleroderma is 7%. These patients are characterized by worse quality of life indicators, more diffuse skin damage, older age of disease onset and higher rate of cardiofibrosis compared to the general cohort. However, additional data and the inclusion of a larger number of patients in the study are needed to better understand the clinical features of this group of iаndividuals.