ArticleArthritis research & therapy2018
High-frequency ultrasound of the skin in systemic sclerosis: an exploratory study to examine correlation with disease activity and to define the minimally detectable difference.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- High-resolution ultrasound imaging of skin involvement in systemic sclerosis: a systematic review.Rheumatology international · 2021Pooled it
- Tofacitinib in the treatment of skin and musculoskeletal involvement in patients with systemic sclerosis, evaluated by ultrasound.Rheumatology international · 2021Trial
- Development of a simplified 3-site ultrasound skin score in systemic sclerosis: a pilot study.Journal of ultrasound · 2026Article
- Shear Wave Elastography for Non-Invasive Assessment of Skin Involvement in Systemic Sclerosis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Development and Surface Indentation Assessment of an MRI-Based Subject-Specific Hand-Forearm Finite Element Model: A Preliminary Study.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Assessment of Skin in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis Using High-Frequency Ultrasound and Shear Wave Elastography: A Comparative Study With Histology, Molecular, and Clinical Parameters.Arthritis care & research · 2026Article
- Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for the Diagnosis of Systemic Sclerosis Associated Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Perspectives.Advances in respiratory medicine · 2025Review
- Design and analysis of innovative multi-frequency ultrasonic probe characteristics.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The diagnostic value and clinical relevance of high frequency ultrasound and shear wave elastography in systemic sclerosis: an observational monocentric study.Clinical rheumatology · 2024Observational
- Skin Ultrasound Assessment of Patients with Systemic Scleroderma-An Observational Study.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- Shear wave elastography-based skin assessment system for systemic sclerosis: a supplement or alternative to conventional ultrasound?Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2023Article
- Multiparametric Skin Assessment in a Monocentric Cohort of Systemic Sclerosis Patients: Is There a Role for Ultra-High Frequency Ultrasound?Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Use of new microcirculation software allows the demonstration of dermis vascularization.Journal of ultrasound · 2023Article
- Novel therapies and innovation for systemic sclerosis skin ulceration.Best practice & research. Clinical rheumatology · 2022Review
- Role of shear wave elastography ultrasound in patients with systemic sclerosis.Journal of ultrasound · 2022Article
- Updated Role of High-frequency Ultrasound in Assessing Dermatological Manifestations in Autoimmune Skin Diseases.Acta dermato-venereologica · 2022Review
- Elastography as a possible useful method of assessment of skin involvement in systemic sclerosis.Postepy dermatologii i alergologii · 2022Article
- Ultrasound measurements of pathological and physiological skin thickness: a scoping review protocol.BMJ open · 2022Article
- The role of ultrasound in systemic sclerosis: On the cutting edge to foster clinical and research advancement.Journal of scleroderma and related disorders · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThickened skin is a major clinical feature in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). We investigated changes of skin thickness in patients with SSc using both high frequency ultrasound (HFU) and the modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) to evaluate the feasibility of application of HFU in skin involvement and the relationship between HFU and clinical profiles.
methodsWe recruited 31 consecutive patients with SSc and 31 age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls in this prospective, cross-sectional study. Skin thickness was measured by an 18-MHz ultrasonic probe at five different skin sites. Total skin thickness (TST) and skin thickness using categorical mRSS scores were recorded and compared to HFU. The European Scleroderma Trial and Research (EUSTAR) group Disease Activity Index (EUSTAR-DAI) and other clinical manifestations were assessed and analyzed.
resultsTST in patients with SSc was thicker than in healthy controls (P < 0.001), and correlated positively with total mRSS and the EUSTAR-DAI and correlated negatively with disease duration (P < 0.05). Patients with higher TST had higher EUSTAR-DAI, mRSS, C-reactive protein (CRP) and lower diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO) (P < 0.05). Even in patients who on clinical assessment were assigned an mRSS that suggested the skin thickness was normal. This was also true to mRSS locally of 1 and 2 (P < 0.01). The area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.831 and yielded sensitivity of 77.4% and specificity of 87.1% at the predicted probability of 7.4 mm as the optimal cutoff point to access skin thickness.
conclusionsIn the study, HFU was able to measure skin thickness, it correlated quantitatively with a valid measure of SSc activity, and a minimal detectable difference was identified.
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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.