[The clinico-functional characteristics of pulmonary arterial hypertension in systemic scleroderma]

Electro-, phono-, echo-, and Doppler echocardiography, bulbar biomicroscopy were performed in 54 SS patients aged 18-64. Mean pulmonary arterial pressure (PP) was determined at Doppler echocardiography on Toshiba SSH-40A unit according to techniques developed by M. M. Mirrakhimov et al. in 1989. The diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension (PH) was made in PP above 18 mm Hg. A close relationship was found between SS history and PH registration. With growing SS duration, PH severity increases, microcirculatory disorders progress. Main PH risk factors in SS patients are believed SS duration, activity, Raynaud's syndrome presentation. Doppler echocardiography can effectively diagnose PH in its subclinical stage, is noninvasive.