The burden of air pollution and temperature on Raynaud's phenomenon secondary to systemic sclerosis

to evaluate the effect of air pollution (ozone - O3 and particulate matter <=10 μm and <=2.5 μm - PM10 and PM2.5) on the severity of Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) secondary to systemic sclerosis (SSc).

cross-sectional, observational, and single centre study.

all consecutive SSc patients residing in Lombardy (Northern Italy) were enrolled. PM10, PM2.5, and O3 concentrations were calculated for each patient at municipality resolution in the week before the evaluation. Similar considerations were made for meteorological variables (temperature and humidity).

patients were asked to assess RP severity during the week before the evaluation according to a visual analogue scale (VAS). Ordinal logistic regression models were fitted to evaluate the short-term effect of temperature and air pollution with respect to RP. A univariate linear regression model was created to consider the association between temperature and pollutants.

in this study, 87 SSc patients were enrolled. Temperature was confirmed to strongly influence RP severity. PM10 and PM.5 were found to significantly worsen RP severity for the first four days before the evaluation, including the day of the visit, and as mean up to six days before the evaluation. O3 seemed to exert a protective effect on RP severity that was significant for the first four days before the evaluation, including the day of the visit, and as mean up to seven days before the evaluation.

since the overwhelming effect of temperature on RP, final conclusions about the exact contribution of pollutants on RP severity cannot be drawn because of the strong inter-correlation between air pollution and temperature.