Active clinical trials for "Scleroderma, Systemic"

The aim of this prospective study is to determine prevalence and characteristics of small intestinal mucosal abnormalities in 40 patients with systemic sclerosis, using capsule endoscopy. The investigators' findings may improve management of small intestinal involvement in patients with systemic sclerosis.

Background: Pre-eclampsia, defined by the association of an arterial hypertension and significant proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation, complicates 1 to 2% of pregnancies in France. Its pathophysiology involves angiogenesis impairment, upregulated maternal systemic inflammatory response, activation of oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction. In a recent Danish nation-wide cohort study, pre-eclampsia was associated with a 69% increased risk of later developing scleroderma. Type of study: prospective observational case-control study. Primary objective of the study: to determine if a history of pre-eclampsia before systemic sclerosis diagnosis is an independent risk factor for vascular phenotype in sclerodermic women. Secondary objective: to describe all risk factors for vascular phenotype in sclerodermic women with a previous pregnancy longer than 6 months before scleroderma diagnosis.

This protocol is of a systematic review for risk factors of pulmonary arterial hypertension in systemic sclerosis.

The primary objective is to assess the burden of aesthetic complication in systemic sclerosis. Systemic sclerosis is associated with changes in skin aspect which can impact the appearance. Aesthetic burden will be assessed through several scales and compared to a control group of health subjects.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) has heterogeneous symptoms and significant medical morbidity. Recently, itch was described as a symptom of SSc (prevalence of 42,6%). To the investigators knowledge, no study yet has examined the clinical features of itch neither had used a specific itch-related quality of life (QoL) scales in patients with SSc. The objectives were to evaluate the prevalence of pruritus, its characteristics and its impact on the QoL in those patients. In this descriptive study, patients followed for SSc in the departments of dermatology, rheumatology, internal medicine and pulmonology at the University Hospital of Brest were included. Participants received a questionnaire including questions about the clinical features of pruritus and 2 scores (5-D itch scale, ItchyQol).

The CAP study is a multicenter, observational, clinical study in patients with systemic sclerosis. The study aims at determining the usefulness of nailfold videocapillaroscopy and patient-specific disease-related factors in predicting the occurrence of digital ulcers within a 6-month observation period. Patients with cutaneous forms of systemic sclerosis (limited or diffuse), with or without history of digital ulceration are eligible. The study will enroll 500 patients at 70 centers.

This research project has the overall objective to investigate the direction of the associations between illness perceptions, their influencing factors and health-related outcomes. Moreover, the investigators want to look at the direction of the associations between illness perceptions and health related outcomes such as psychological and physical functioning in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Systemic Sclerosis (SSc). The investigators want to know whether the outcome variables anxiety, depression, physical (dis) functioning are influenced by illness perceptions or vice versa. Not only the patients' illness perceptions but also the illness perceptions of the General Practitioners (GP) and rheumatologists will be investigated. The researchers want to know if the doctors' perceptions have an impact on the physical and psychological functioning of the patient or vice versa. Much research in the field of illness perceptions is cross-sectional in nature which means that the direction of the relationships between variables is not known.

To determine sleep disturbance, pulmonary function test, 6 minute walk, echocardiogram abnormality, arterial blood gas, ventilation/perfusion scan of the chest in Scleroderma patient with Pulmonary Hypertension.

Scleroderma is an autoimmune disease of unknown origin. Recently, the role of environmental factors, and particularly toxic drug exposure, in the genesis of scleroderma has been suggested. This prompted us to conduct this prospective, case-control, multicentric study, including 2 groups of subjects: 100 patients with scleroderma 300 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. The aim of our study is to determine whether exposure to toxics is higher in patients with scleroderma compared with healthy controls.

The primary intent of this study is to add to the body of knowledge on scleroderma patients with interstitial lung disease. While lung disease is recognized as the leading cause of death amongst patients with scleroderma, there is not a large body of literature describing the long-term morbidity and mortality rate of these scleroderma patients. For this reason, the investigators are following participants of the Scleroderma Lung Study (NCT00004563) after their participation in that study was concluded. In addition, the investigators will assess if the subjects who received one year of oral cyclophosphamide in the Scleroderma Lung Study experienced progression of their scleroderma-related lung disease following the end of the study.