About the Authors

F. David Carmona

Contributed equally to this work with: F. David Carmona, Jose-Ezequiel Martin

dcarmona@ipb.csic.es

Affiliation Instituto de Parasitología y Biomedicina López-Neyra, CSIC, Granada, Spain

Jose-Ezequiel Martin

Contributed equally to this work with: F. David Carmona, Jose-Ezequiel Martin

Affiliation Instituto de Parasitología y Biomedicina López-Neyra, CSIC, Granada, Spain

Lorenzo Beretta

Affiliation Referral Center for Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

Carmen P. Simeón

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain

Patricia E. Carreira

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain

José Luis Callejas

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital Clínico San Cecilio, Granada, Spain

Mónica Fernández-Castro

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain

Luis Sáez-Comet

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Zaragoza, Spain

Emma Beltrán

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology, Hospital General Universitario de Valencia, Valencia, Spain

María Teresa Camps

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital Carlos Haya, Málaga, Spain

María Victoria Egurbide

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital de Cruces, Barakaldo, Spain

the Spanish Scleroderma Group

Membership of the Spanish Scleroderma Group is provided in File S1.

Paolo Airó

Affiliation Servizio di Reumatologia ed Immunologia Clinica Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy

Raffaella Scorza

Affiliation Referral Center for Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

Claudio Lunardi

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Università degli Studi di Verona, Verona, Italy

Nicolas Hunzelmann

Affiliation Department of Dermatology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Gabriela Riemekasten

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Charité University Hospital, Berlin, Germany

Torsten Witte

Affiliation Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Alexander Kreuter

Affiliation Ruhr University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany

Jörg H. W. Distler

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine 3, Institute for Clinical Immunology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

Rajan Madhok

Affiliation Centre for Rheumatic Diseases, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Paul Shiels

Affiliation Centre for Rheumatic Diseases, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Jacob M. van Laar

Affiliation Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle, United Kingdom

Carmen Fonseca

Affiliation Centre for Rheumatology, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, United Kingdom

Christopher Denton

Affiliation Centre for Rheumatology, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, United Kingdom

Ariane Herrick

Affiliation Arthritis Research UK Epidemiology Unit, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom

Jane Worthington

Affiliation Arthritis Research UK Epidemiology Unit, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom

Annemie J. Schuerwegh

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

Madelon C. Vonk

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Alexandre E. Voskuyl

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Timothy R. D. J. Radstake

Affiliations Department of Rheumatology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Javier Martín

Affiliation Instituto de Parasitología y Biomedicina López-Neyra, CSIC, Granada, Spain

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Collection of data: LB CPS PEC JLC MFC LSC EB MTC MVE PA RS CL NH GR TW AK JHWD RM PS JML CF CD AH JW AJS MCV AEV TRDJR. Analysis and interpretation of data: FDC JEM JM LB CPS PEC JLC MFC LSC EB MTC MVE PA RS CL NH GR TW AK JHWD RM PS JML CF CD AH JW AJS MCV AEV TRDJR. Critical revision of the manuscript draft: JEM JM LB CPS PEC JLC MFC LSC EB MTC MVE PA RS CL NH GR TW AK JHWD RM PS JML CF CD AH JW AJS MCV AEV TRDJR. Conceived and designed the experiments: FDC JEM JM. Performed the experiments: FDC JEM. Analyzed the data: FDC JEM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LB CPS PEC JLC MFC LSC EB MTC MVE PA RS CL NH GR TW AK JHWD RM PS JML CF CD AH JW AJS MCV AEV TRDJR. Wrote the paper: FDC.