Introduction: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by fibrosis, inflammation, and microcirculatory alterations. Objective: To evaluate abnormalities in the sublingual microcirculation of SSc patients and to establish any differences compared to healthy controls. Methods: The sublingual microcirculation was determined using a Sidestream dark-field (SDF) imaging device (MicroScan; MicroVision Medical, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) in patients with SSc and controls. Results: Twelve patients with SSc (75% with diffuse cutaneous SSc) were evaluated (mean age: 52.08 ± 2.08 years). A group of 20 volunteers was used as the control. Significantly lower total capillary density (TCD) (9.2 [8.5–9.7] vs. 10.9 [9.8–12.5]) and functional capillary density (FCD) (7.0 [6.8–7.5] vs. 8.6 [7.5–9.8]) were observed in SSc patients than in healthy controls. Conclusions: SSc is related to significantly lower capillary density in the sublingual microcirculation, and the SDF imaging technique could be an alternative to nailfold videocapillaroscopy for diagnosing and following-up patients with SSc.
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Hormaza, A. A., Aguirre-Valencia, D., Quiñonez, E., Suso, J. P., Posso-Osorio, I., Echeverri, A. F., … Bonilla-Abadía, F. (2018). Sublingual microcirculatory alterations in patients with stable systemic sclerosis. Revista Colombiana de Reumatologia, 25(4), 257–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcreu.2018.09.003
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