ArticleAnnals of the rheumatic diseases2016
Prediction of improvement in skin fibrosis in diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis: a EUSTAR analysis.
Article in Annals of the rheumatic diseases, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- Biomarker analysis from the phase 2b randomized placebo-controlled trial of riociguat in early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2024Trial
- Long-term Outcomes After Rituximab Treatment for Patients With Systemic Sclerosis: Follow-up of the DESIRES Trial With a Focus on Serum Immunoglobulin Levels.JAMA dermatology · 2023Trial
- Nintedanib in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease: Subgroup Analyses by Autoantibody Status and Modified Rodnan Skin Thickness Score.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2022Trial
- Riociguat in patients with early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (RISE-SSc): randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled multicentre trial.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2020Trial
- Mechanical gating of tendon fibrogenic transcription in systemic sclerosis.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Systematic Review and Model-Based Meta-Analysis of Targeted Drugs for Systemic Sclerosis.Pharmaceutics · 2026Review
- Skin Biopsies Enhance Prediction of Clinical Trajectory in Diffuse Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Soluble CD13 in systemic sclerosis: clinical observations and transcriptomic insights from peripheral blood.Arthritis research & therapy · 2026Article
- Clinical significance of inflammation-coagulation-autoantibody triad in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease: a retrospective study.Arthritis research & therapy · 2025Article
- Fibrosis in Immune-Mediated and Autoimmune Disorders.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Natural killer cells are decreased in systemic sclerosis and have diagnostic value for pulmonary arterial hypertension incorporation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Aberrant lipid profiles and lymphocyte counts in systemic sclerosis population, reassessing predictive value for concurrent cardiovascular diseases.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Does regression of skin thickening predict improvement of internal organ involvement and survival in patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis? A EUSTAR analysis.Arthritis research & therapy · 2024Article
- Long-term outcome of autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with systemic sclerosis: a comparison with patients treated with rituximab and with traditional immunosuppressive agents.Arthritis research & therapy · 2024Article
- Predictors of clinical features in early-onset severe systemic sclerosis: An analysis from a multicenter prospective observational Japanese cohort.The Journal of dermatology · 2024Observational
- Assessment of disease outcome measures in systemic sclerosis.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2022Review
- Skin involvement in early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis: an unmet clinical need.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2022Review
- Clinical characteristics, visceral involvement, and mortality in at-risk or early diffuse systemic sclerosis: a longitudinal analysis of an observational prospective multicenter US cohort.Arthritis research & therapy · 2021Observational
- Is there still a role for cyclophosphamide in the treatment of systemic sclerosis?Journal of scleroderma and related disorders · 2021Review
- New promising drugs for the treatment of systemic sclerosis: pathogenic considerations, enhanced classifications, and personalized medicine.Expert opinion on investigational drugs · 2021Review
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesImprovement of skin fibrosis is part of the natural course of diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc). Recognising those patients most likely to improve could help tailoring clinical management and cohort enrichment for clinical trials. In this study, we aimed to identify predictors for improvement of skin fibrosis in patients with dcSSc.
methodsWe performed a longitudinal analysis of the European Scleroderma Trials And Research (EUSTAR) registry including patients with dcSSc, fulfilling American College of Rheumatology criteria, baseline modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) ≥7 and follow-up mRSS at 12±2 months. The primary outcome was skin improvement (decrease in mRSS of >5 points and ≥25%) at 1 year follow-up. A respective increase in mRSS was considered progression. Candidate predictors for skin improvement were selected by expert opinion and logistic regression with bootstrap validation was applied.
resultsFrom the 919 patients included, 218 (24%) improved and 95 (10%) progressed. Eleven candidate predictors for skin improvement were analysed. The final model identified high baseline mRSS and absence of tendon friction rubs as independent predictors of skin improvement. The baseline mRSS was the strongest predictor of skin improvement, independent of disease duration. An upper threshold between 18 and 25 performed best in enriching for progressors over regressors.
conclusionsPatients with advanced skin fibrosis at baseline and absence of tendon friction rubs are more likely to regress in the next year than patients with milder skin fibrosis. These evidence-based data can be implemented in clinical trial design to minimise the inclusion of patients who would regress under standard of care.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.