ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To describe clinical features of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and associate them with antitopoisomerase-1 antibody and centromere pattern of antinuclear antibody. METHODS: We evaluated 50 patients who met SSc screening criteria of the American College of Rheumatology, and classified as limited cutaneous SSc and diffuse cutaneous SSc. Clinical history, physical examination and laboratory tests were evaluated: cutaneous, vascular, gastrointestinal, renal, pulmonary and cardiac involvement, in addition to autoantibodies. The continuous quantitative variables, discrete quantitative and categorical variables were evaluated employing the relevant statistical tests. A P value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The authors found that 88% of the patients were women, and 70% of the cases corresponded to the limited cutaneous form. The skin thickening assessed by the modified Rodnan skin score found as minimum of 3, and a maximum of 32, and median of 14. Raynaud's phenomenon was found in 100% of patients, skin ulcers in 56%, esophageal symptoms in 80%, interstitial lung disease in 44%, and increase in right ventricular systolic pressure in18% of the patients. Antinuclear antibodies were found in 80%, the centromere pattern in 34% and antitopoisomerase-1 in 22% of the patients. We found that 88.2% of patients with centromere pattern antinuclear antibody had limited cutaneous SSc, while 72.7% of patients with topoisomerase-1 antibodies had diffuse cutaneous SSc. CONCLUSION: The clinical features of this population of patients with SSc are similar to results in the literature, as well as the association with the autoantibodies evaluated.
