Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Meier, Florian M P
• Frommer, Klaus W
• Dinser, Robert
• Walker, Ulrich A
• Czirjak, Laszlo
• Denton, Christopher P
• Allanore, Yannick
• Distler, Oliver
• Riemekasten, Gabriela
• Valentini, Gabriele
• Müller-Ladner, Ulf

Titel

Update on the profile of the EUSTAR cohort: an analysis of the EULAR Scleroderma Trials and Research group database

Ist Teil von

• Annals of the rheumatic diseases, 2012-08, Vol.71 (8), p.1355-1360

Ort / Verlag

London: BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and European League Against Rheumatism

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Quelle

BMJ Journals Archiv - DFG Nationallizenzen

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Objectives Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare disease requiring multicentre collaboration to reveal comprehensive details of disease-related causes for morbidity and mortality. Methods The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Scleroderma Trials and Research (EUSTAR) group initiated a database to prospectively gather key data of patients with SSc using a minimal essential dataset that was reorganised in 2008 introducing new items. Baseline visit data of patients who were registered between 2004 and 2011 were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results In June 2011, 7655 patients (2838 with diffuse cutaneous (dc) and 4481 with limited cutaneous (lc) SSc who fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology diagnostic criteria had been registered in 174 centres, mainly European. The most prominent hallmarks of disease were Raynaud's phenomenon (96.3%), antinuclear antibodies (93.4%) and a typical capillaroscopic pattern (90.9%). Scleroderma was more common on fingers and hands than on any other part of the skin. Proton pump inhibitors (65.2%), calcium channel blockers (52.7%), and corticosteroids (45.3%) were most often prescribed. Among the immunosuppressant agents, cyclophosphamide was used more often in dcSSc than in lcSSc. Conclusions The EUSTAR database provides an abundance of information on the true clinical face of SSc that will be helpful in improving the classification of SSc and its subsets and for developing more specific therapeutic recommendations.