The frequency of pulmonary hypertension in juvenile scleroderma
https://doi.org/10.1186/1546-0096-12-S1-P307
© Adrovic et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014
Published: 17 September 2014
Keywords
Introduction
Juvenile scleroderma (JS), represents a rarely seen group of connective tissue disease with multiple organ involvement. Although quite rare in childhood, cardio-vascular and pulmonary involvements are the most important mortality and morbidity factors. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), the most important sequelae of pulmonary involvement, could be determined by echocardiographic examinations. Early cardio-vascular and pulmonary involvement determination is extremely important in reducing mortality of patients.
Objectives
The aim of the study was to use non-invasive methods (echocardiography, pulmonary function tests) to examine cardio-pulmonary involvement of the disease in patients. Treatment of patients with positive findings in the early stage of the disease possibly reduces the morbidity and mortality.
Methods
Totally of 35 patients with scleroderma, followed up at Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Pediatric Rheumatology Department with diagnosis of juvenile scleroderma were included in the study. Doppler echocardiography was performed at Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Pediatric Cardiology Department and pulmonary function tests were performed at Laboratory for pulmonary function tests at Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty. FVC and DLCO were measured in order to investigate pulmonary fibrosis. The assessment of PAP and risk factors for PAH was made by measurement of maximum tricuspid insufficiency (TI), end diastolic pulmonary insufficiency (PI), AT/ET, RAP and contraction of vena cava inferior during inspiration.
Results
The values of TI, PI, AT/ET and PAP were found to be normal and statistically signıficant different from the pathological values. The results of FVC and DLCO were found to be statistically significant above normal values. In other words, no patient was found to have cardio-pulmonary involvement.
Conclusion
Although quite rare in juvenile scleroderma, cardio-vascular and pulmonary involvement is the most important factor in the prognosis of the disease. Early diagnosis, regular follow up and appropriate treatment are important in reducing the cardio-vascular and pulmonary complications of the disease.
Disclosure of interest
None declared.
Authors’ Affiliations
Copyright
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
