Clinical characteristics and treatment patterns of systemic sclerosis patients in China: a single-center...

This study aims to describe the demographic, laboratory, and clinical characteristics of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients in a Chinese national tertiary referral center, and to outline the treatment model. A retrospective observational study was conducted on adult SSc patients admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital between January 2012 and January 2022. Data were collected from electronic medical records, including demographics, clinical, laboratory parameters, and treatment details, and analyzed using SPSS. This study included 232 SSc patients, with 45.7% classified as diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc) and 54.3% as limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc). Anticentromere antibody and anti-topoisomerase I antibody were more common in lcSSc (33.3%) and dcSSc (36.2%), respectively. Excluding skin manifestations, the most common organ involvement was gastrointestinal, particularly esophageal involvement (56.5%), followed by diastolic dysfunction (53.2%), pericardial effusion (48.9%), pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) (44.8%), and lung fibrosis (20.1%). Combined immunosuppressive therapy was common, with 85.1% and 51.8% of patients receiving glucocorticoids and cyclophosphamide, respectively; medications for complication management, such as proton pump inhibitors (64.5%) for gastrointestinal involvement, were also frequently prescribed. Additionally, traditional Chinese medicine was incorporated into the regimen for almost one-quarter (23.7%) of patients. Multivariate analysis revealed that elevated N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide and elevated C-reactive protein were significantly associated with PAH (OR = 12.359 and 3.239). This study delineates a clinical profile of Chinese SSc patients characterized by frequent multi-organ involvement and a common practice of combined immunosuppressive therapy. Further exploration is needed to develop more precise pharmacological strategies and to identify predictive factors for SSc-related complications.