Fig 1.
Comprehensive CMR protocol scheme.
CPT = cold pressor test; Gd-BOPTA = gadobenate dimeglumine; T2w STIR = Short tau inversion recovery T2-weighted sequence; MOLLI = Modified Look-Locker Inversion recovery sequence; pre-/post-Gd = before/after gadolinium administration.
Table 1.
SSc patient group: Clinical characteristics.
Table 2.
SSc patient group: CMR features.
Fig 2.
40 years-old male SSc patient (dcSSc pattern) with 13-years history of SSc disease duration.
STIR-T2w image shows an area of myocardial edema on left ventricular lateral wall (arrow), emphasized by the analysis of T2 myocardial-to-skeletal muscle signal intensity ratio (box below). Analysis of myocardial T2 (b.), nT1 (c.) and ECV (d.) maps showed T2 value of 51 ± 2.5 ms, a mild diffuse increase of global myocardial nT1 (1050 ± 24 ms) and a slight increase of ECV (33 ± 3.4%). Perfusion images (e.) before, during and after the passage of contrast bolus with relative signal intensity-time curves at different time-points of the myocardial segments and ventricular cavity. LGE image (f.) show a mid-subepicardial enhancement on the lateral wall (arrow).
Fig 3.
Box plot graphs of native T1, T2 and ECV.
Mean values, +/- 1 Standard Deviation bars; SSc = systemic sclerosis; lcSSc = limited cutaneous form; dcSSc = diffuse cutaneous form.
Table 3.
Clinical characteristics and CMR features of dcSSc and lcSSc patient subgroups and paired comparison.
Fig 4.
Box plot graphs of myocardial blood flow (MBF) at rest and after cold pressor test (CPT).
Mean values, +/- 1 Standard Deviation bars; SSc = systemic sclerosis; lcSSc = limited cutaneous form; dcSSc = diffuse cutaneous form.
Fig 5.
Myocardial nT1 and ECV plotted against MBF at rest, after cold pressor test (CPT) and %MBF variation after CPT.
Table 4.
Logistic Regression Analysis for the significant and independent predictors in patients with SSc.