Sabrina Paolino, Federica Goegan, Marco Amedeo Cimmino, Andrea Casabella, Carmen Pizzorni, Massimo Patanè, Carlotta Schenone, Veronica Tomatis, Alberto Sulli, Emanuele Gotelli, Vanessa Smith, Maurizio Cutolo
OBJECTIVES: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is characterised by microvascular inflammatory damage, loss of capillaries and progressive systemic fibrosis. Capillary rarefaction may precede sarcopenia, we therefore evaluated the body composition and occurrence of sarcopenia in SSc patients, in relation to the peripheral microcirculatory status, assessed and scored by nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) patterns, including capillary number count and microangiopathy evolution score (MES). METHODS: Body composition and bone mineral density were assessed by Dual X-ray absorptiometry and a dedicated software (GE Lunar, USA) in 43 SSc patients (age 64...
May 2020: Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology