Evaluating Skin Involvement in Systemic Sclerosis Using High-Frequency Ultrasound and Virtual Touch Tissue Imaging

Area of Science:

• Rheumatology
• Medical Imaging
• Biophysics

Background:

• Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a complex autoimmune disease characterized by skin thickening.
• Accurate assessment of skin involvement is crucial for SSc diagnosis and management.
• Current diagnostic methods may lack quantitative precision in evaluating skin changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic significance of high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) combined with visual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) for SSc.
• To quantitatively assess skin involvement in SSc patients using these imaging techniques.
• To determine the combined diagnostic performance of HFUS and VTIQ in SSc.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study involving 30 SSc patients and 30 healthy volunteers.
• Skin thickness and shear wave velocity (SWV) were measured at six sites using HFUS and VTIQ.
• Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to assess diagnostic performance.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in SWV and skin thickness were observed between SSc patients and controls (p < 0.05).
• SWV and thickness showed strong correlations with the Rodnan skin score (r = 0.726 and r = 0.679, respectively).
• The combined HFUS and VTIQ approach yielded the highest area under the curve (AUC) of 0.923, indicating superior diagnostic accuracy.

Conclusions:

• The integration of HFUS and VTIQ provides a quantitative and accurate method for assessing skin involvement in SSc.
• This combined approach offers valuable insights for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of SSc.
• HFUS and VTIQ represent a promising tool for improving SSc patient management.