Source
Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
There have been no reports of patients with sclerosing panniculitis and systemic sclerosis (SSc).
OBJECTIVES:
To evaluate the incidence of sclerosing panniculitis in patients with SSc, and to investigate the clinical features of such cases.
METHODS:
In total, 128 patients with SSc treated at our clinic were investigated retrospectively.
RESULTS:
SSc patients with sclerosing panniculitis had pulmonary hypertension (PH), especially isolated PH, at a significantly higher incidence than those without. Among the SSc patients with PH, those with sclerosing panniculitis had pulmonary infarctions at a higher incidence than those without.
CONCLUSIONS:
Our results suggest that thrombosis caused by venous hypertension of the leg may be the main cause of PH in patients with SSc and sclerosing panniculitis. Sclerosing panniculitis may be a useful marker of PH in patients with SSc.