Relationship of Cardiac Involvement With Disease Severity in Patients of Systemic Sclerosis

Abstract

Objectives: Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune condition with underlying pathology in the connective tissue and can affect almost any organ system mainly skin, joints, lungs, heart and the abdomen. It usually follows a chronic course of disease. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship of cardiac involvement with the severity of disease course in patients with systemic sclerosis. Methodology: Two hundred patients with a diagnosis of Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) were evaluated for cardiac involvement via history, examination, electrocardiogram and echocardiography. Cardiac involvement was compared across genders, age, duration of disease, and relationship with American College of Rheumatology (ACR) scores. Results: Cardiac abnormalities were detected in 16% of these patients. Mean age of the study population was 38.67 ± 12.73 years including 55.5% males and 44.5% females. The mean ACR score of the study population was 12.8 ± 3. A significant relationship was observed between the degree of cardiac involvement and ACR scores (p=0.001) while that between cardiac abnormality and other confounding factors was non-significant i.e., gender (p=0.630), age groups (p=0.287) and duration since diagnosis (p=0.801). Conclusion: There is a potential association of cardiac dysfunction with how severe the systemic sclerosis is, without a noteworthy impact of age, gender and disease duration.