ABSTRACT
The authors provide the results of the clinical and functional studies in 25 patients with systemic scleroderma. The patients were examined for the diffusion lung capacity separated into the constituent components (membrane and blood ones), for the uniformity of alveolar ventilation, for pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary blood flow. They also underwent echocardiography. The use of the combination of non-invasive research methods makes it possible to obtain quantitative and quantitative information pertaining to the involvement of the lungs at the level of the alveolocapillary membranes and microvascular bed, myocardium and to their interrelations at the early stages of systematic scleroderma. In patients with the pronounced clinical picture of the disease, of paramount importance is the use of these methods for proper interpretation of certain symptoms in the estimation of lung and heart injuries and of their prevailing significance in the general clinical picture of the disease. The new trends in the present work are related to the demonstration of the compensatory and pathological changes in the respiratory and hemodynamic system in sclerodermia systematica at the early enough stages of the illness.
