“…Given these, we constructed a DU cohort to confirm the effect of IGU. We compared most of the known clinical risk factors for the new DUs, including the onset of the disease at a younger age (41)(42)(43), dcSSc (42,44,45), DU(s) ever (44,45), elevated ESR (46), anti-TOPO (41,47), presence of ILD (42), certain capillaroscopic phenotype (47,48), and heavy smoking (>25 pack-years) (49), as well as some risk factors with conflicting results, such as sex (41,46,50), disease duration (42,51), and presence of PH (42,43). None of these factors was statistically different between patients with and without IGU therapy.…”