News

Health Canada has approved Ofev (nintedanib) as a treatment to slow the decline of pulmonary function in people with scleroderma-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD). The approval makes Ofev, by Boehringer Ingelheim, the first treatment for people with SSc-ILD available in Canada. It follows the therapy’s recent approval in the…

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), along with an algorithm that considers both lung and heart functions, can help lower the unnecessary use of right heart catheterization to determine if a scleroderma patient has pulmonary arterial hypertension, a study reports. The study, “Cardiopulmonary exercise testing in a combined…

An advanced imaging technique, called ultra-high-frequency ultrasound (UHF-US), provides detailed information of all skin layers to better detect and characterize skin involvement in people with scleroderma, a pilot study reports. The ability of this technology to precisely measure damage in the dermis, the skin’s inner layer, may be…

People with diffuse cutaneous scleroderma (dcSSc) being treated with lenabasum continue to show improvement after more than two years of the therapy, an update from a Phase 2 extension study shows. The research, “…

Rare disease-themed videos glowed on a large screen before an audience of people in wheelchairs, with crutches, and bearing oxygen tanks this Nov. 9 and 10 in San Francisco. Disorder: The Rare Disease Film Festival strives to eventually host a film about every one of the nearly 7,000 rare…

Black patients with scleroderma experience faster disease progression, higher prevalence of diffuse skin involvement, and higher mortality than Asian or white patients, a study reports. In addition, Asian patients were found to have earlier disease onset, faster disease course, and more lung involvement and pulmonary hypertension…

Treatment with Ofev (nintedanib) slows the rate of lung function decline in people with autoimmune-related interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), including scleroderma, a new analysis shows. Those are the results of the global Phase 3 INBUILD study (NCT02999178), which evaluated the therapeutic benefits of Ofev in people with…

People with scleroderma who were younger and had thicker skin at the onset of their disease experience an increased risk of heart muscle (myocardial) inflammation, a new study suggests. The research, “Clinical and laboratory predictions of myocardial inflammation as detected by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in patients with…

Treatment with Letairis (ambrisentan) failed to significantly reduce pulmonary blood pressure at rest and during exercise compared with a placebo in people with scleroderma and mild pulmonary hypertension (PH), a Phase 2 trial showed. However, the therapy improved cardiac function and blood flow in the lungs —…

Most people with scleroderma develop skin lesions within one year after the onset of Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP), a condition in which the fingers and toes feel numb, prickly, and frigid in response to cold temperatures or stress, a 10-year follow-up study reports.  The findings also showed a continuous…