The Application of Fluorescence Optical Imaging in Systemic Sclerosis

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Rheumatology
• Vascular Biology

Background:

• Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) often involves Raynaud's phenomenon, causing inflammation.
• Visualizing soft tissue inflammation in SSc is crucial for effective treatment monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the utility of Fluorescence Optical Imaging (FOI) for visualizing soft tissue inflammation in SSc patients.
• To evaluate the therapeutic response to iloprost or alprostadil in SSc patients using FOI.

Main Methods:

• Prospective study including 21 SSc patients and 26 healthy controls.
• Intravenous iloprost or alprostadil treatment for seven days.
• FOI with indocyanine green (ICG) at baseline and after treatment, analyzing 19 hand segments per hand.

Main Results:

• FOI demonstrated high sensitivity (95%) and specificity (96%) for detecting ICG enhancement in SSc.
• Baseline ICG enhancement was observed in 31.5% of hand segments.
• A significant reduction in ICG enhancement was noted after treatment, ranging from 40.9% to 24.7%.

Conclusions:

• FOI is a sensitive and specific technique for visualizing soft tissue inflammation in SSc.
• Iloprost showed slightly stronger anti-inflammatory effects than alprostadil.
• FOI shows promise for diagnosing and monitoring SSc-related Raynaud's phenomenon.