• Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Jun 2022

    Ultrasound evaluation of bowel vasculopathy in systemic sclerosis.

    • Giulia Bandini, Laura Cometi, Esterita Accogli, Andrea Domanico, Lorenzo Tofani, Cosimo Bruni, Silvia Bellando-Randone, Gemma Lepri, Martina Orlandi, Serena Guiducci, Khadija El-Aoufy, Gabriele Ciuti, Alessia Fabbri, Marco Matucci-Cerinic, Alberto Moggi-Pignone, and Study Group of Rheumathology and Internal Medicine.
    • Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, and Division of Internal Medicine AOUC, Viale San Luca, Florence 50134, Italy; Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, Pisa, Italy; Interventional and Structural Cardiology, Heart, Lung and Vessels Department, AOU Careggi, Italy. Electronic address: giulia.bandini@unifi.it.
    • Eur. J. Intern. Med. 2022 Jun 1; 100: 62-68.

    BackgroundGastrointestinal (GI) manifestations are frequent in systemic sclerosis (SSc) with an impact on quality of life and morbidity. Bowel vasculopathy is a key pathogenetic factor responsible for GI involvement.ObjectivesTo compare abdominal ultrasound (US) and Color Doppler Ultrasonography (CDU) features of splanchnic vessels of SSc patients with healthy controls.MethodsThe charts of SSc patients who underwent an abdominal US and CDU study were retrospectively analyzed. For Superior Mesenteric Artery (SMA) and Inferior Mesenteric Artery (IMA) caliber, Peak Systolic Velocity (PSV), Reverse Velocity (RV), End-Diastolic Velocity (EDV), Mean Velocity (mV), Blood-flow, Resistive Index (RI) and Pulsatility Index (PI) were recorded.Results28 SSc patients and 28 controls were enrolled. In SSc, caliber of SMA was significantly smaller than in controls (5.75 ± 0.62 mm vs. 6.45 ± 0.60 mm, p < 0.0001 - p adj =0.0002). The flow study of SMA and IMA showed a significant reduction of RV (SMA: 7.25 ± 6.37 cm/s vs. 18.52 ± 6.16 cm/s, p < 0.0001 - p adj <0.0001; IMA: 2.69 ± 6.10 cm/s vs. 17.06 ± 5.75 cm/s, p < 0.0001 - p adj <0.0001) and PI (SMA: 3.33 ± 0.75 vs. 4.53 ± 1.03, p < 0.0001 - p adj =0.0002; IMA: 3.54 ± 0.95 vs. 6.08 ± 1.53, p < 0.0001 - p adj <0.0001) in SSc patients than controls.Conclusioninvolvement of splanchnic vessels in SSc may be non-invasively investigated with abdominal US and CDU. Morphological and functional changes of Doppler parameters observed in SMA and IMA clearly demonstrate that these vessels are affected by SSc vasculopathy.Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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