Related Experiment Videos
[Changes in esophageal peristalsis in diverse clinical forms and antibody specificity in scleroderma: a scintigraphic
F Cozzi1, P Zucchetta, N Durigon
1Cattedra e Divisione di Reumatologia, Università di Padua, Italy. franco.cozzi@unipd.it
Objective:
To define the prevalence and severity of esophageal involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and its relationship with the different clinical forms and ANA specificities of the disease.
Methods:
A hundred consecutive patients with SSc, 48 with cutaneous limited, 26 with intermediate and 26 with diffuse form of disease, 49 with anti-centromere and 37 with anti-Scl70 ANA pattern, were submitted to scintigraphy using a semisolid orally ingested bolus to detect esophageal hypomotility.
Results:
An impairment of esophageal function has been observed in 68% of SSc patients. Esophageal dysmotility was significantly more frequent and severe in patients with cutaneous diffuse and intermediate forms of SSc and with anti-Scl70 ANA pattern.
Conclusions:
Esophageal involvement is very common in SSc. The scintigraphy confirms to be a useful and non invasive diagnostic method; moreover it permits to quantify the severity of the esophageal dysmotility by analyzing both global and segmental function.