BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested an increased risk of cancer among patients with scleroderma. OBJECTIVE To study a population based cohort of patients with scleroderma in South Australia. METHODS Subjects with scleroderma were identified from the South Australian Scleroderma Registry established in 1993. All subjects on the scleroderma registry were linked to the South Australian ...

The prototypic autoimmune diseases involving skin (lupus, dermatomyositis) typically result in epithelial injury and autoantibodies to characteristic cellular antigens. Disease-specific autoantibodies are also found in scleroderma, but scleroderma is different from other cutaneous autoimmune diseases because epithelial injury does not occur. Multiple factors and combinations of factors (immune ...

A 51-year-old woman, who was diagnosed as having limited cutaneous systemic scleroderma, presented with pulmonary nodules incidentally detected in a chest radiograph. The patient had surgical biopsy of the nodules. In microscopic examination of the specimens, proliferation, mitotic activity, and cellular anaplasia of spindle cells were present. Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography sh...

OBJECTIVE Periostin, a novel matricellular protein, is recently reported to play a crucial role in tissue remodeling and is highly expressed under fibrotic conditions. This study was undertaken to assess the role of periostin in scleroderma. METHODS Using skin from patients and healthy donors, the expression of periostin was assessed by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting analyses. Furthe...

Juvenile localized scleroderma (JLS) includes several subtypes including plaque morphea, linear scleroderma and the en coup de sabre type which affects face and head. The latter variety may involve the eye and the brain with various appearance and clinical complications.We describe the case of a 6-year-old boy who presented partial complex seizures, with status epilepticus, four months before t...

Skin blood flow was measured by the clearance of radioactive xenon ((133)Xe) injected intracutaneously in eight patients with scleroderma and nine control subjects under conditions of controlled temperature and humidity. Scleroderma patients, on being cooled 1 hr at 18 degrees C, had a rate constant of (133)Xe clearance from the dorsal finger skin which was 0.04 +/-0.07 min(-1) (mean +/-SD), co...

ER: extended release HDACi: Histone deacetylase inhibitor TSA: trichostatin A TGF-b: Transforming growth factor beta INTRODUCTION Scleroderma is an autoimmune connective tissue disease that involves the skin and internal organs for which there are few reliably effective treatments. The cutaneous manifestations of scleroderma include fibrosis and sclerodactyly, calcinosis cutis, digital ulcers, ...

Background: Scleroderma renal crisis (SRC) is a rare but life-threatening complication in SSc, which defined as malignant hypertension and progressive failure [1] . Previous reports of the prevalence for scleroderma show variable outcomes. Objectives: We aim to find out SRC Chinese, conduct meta-analysis assess worldwide investigate possible factors variability. Methods: evaluated compared clin...