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Increased levels of two proteins produced during acute inflammation can help predict pulmonary involvement in patients with diffuse systemic sclerosis, a study shows. Patients with diffuse systemic sclerosis who also have developed lung disease were found to have significantly higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid A…

Changes in gene expression occur early in scleroderma patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension or interstitial lung disease, which means that a collection of biomarkers can be used to detect these lung conditions early, a study reports. The research dealt with what scientists call a biomarker panel for the conditions. The…

Almost a quarter of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients with reduced gas exchange develop pulmonary hypertension (PH) within three years, according to a recent study that used right heart catheterization to measure pulmonary arterial pressures. Regular tests to assess PH, including right heart catheterization (RHC), might be useful in…

Severe malnutrition significantly decreases the quality of life of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), according to researchers. Standardized nutritional screening is needed to identify those at risk of malnutrition so that interventions are rapidly introduced to avoid disease worsening. The study, “The impact of malnutrition on…

Nailfold capillary damage was found to be a predictor of mortality in scleroderma patients, according to researchers from Australia. The study, “The role of Nailfold Capillary Dropout on Mortality in Systemic Sclerosis,” was published in the Internal Medicine Journal. Microvasculopathy, which refers to the degeneration…

Major healthcare organizations are throwing their support behind an initiative called “Let MI Doctors Decide” intended to improve patient access to prescribed medicines for scleroderma and other autoimmune disorders in Michigan. “Let MI Doctors Decide” is spearheaded by the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA). Organizations joining a new…

Boehringer Ingelheim‘s product nintedanib (marketed as Ofev for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis) has been granted fast track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of systemic sclerosis associated with interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD). Fast track designation is granted to new therapies that…

Genetic sequencing and the speed with which it can help diagnose a child’s disease — in addition to revealing the genes that cause at least half of the 7,000 rare diseases currently known — was the focus of a discussion by three top New York geneticists. The Feb. 28 conference,…

iBio has selected a lead scleroderma treatment candidate — a molecule it calls the E4-Fc fusion protein. The company plans to continue developing it, with a goal of moving it in clinical trials in people. It also hopes to treat fibrotic diseases besides scleroderma with the molecule, which is…

When it comes to rare diseases, one that definitely makes the list is spinal muscular atrophy with respiratory distress — SMARD,  for short. Hunter Pageau, a 12-year-old boy from North Haven, Connecticut, is one of only 80 people in the world known to have SMARD, a motor neuron disease…