Assessment of Lung Involvement and Prognostic Value of thе 6-Minute Walking Test for Pulmonary Involvement in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis

Abstract

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic multisystemic immune-mediated disease with multifactorial etiology, variable clinical symptomatology, and treatment with limited efficacy. In recent years, biomarkers of SSc and predictors of disease progression and organ’s involvement have been intensively studied in order to identify the most appropriate therapeutic choice for the patients. The lungs are frequently affected in the pathological processes in patients with SSc, and this is often the main cause of death in these patients due to involvement of the lung parenchyma or pulmonary vessels. In daily clinical practice, it is necessary to have a relatively accurate and easily reproducible methods for assessing functional capacity of this organ. The comparative characterization of the “field tests” shows that the 6-minute walk test is a convenient test for assessing functional activity in patients with moderately severe and severe connective tissue diseases. It is easy to administer, well reproducible, acceptable to patients, sensitive to therapeutic procedures. The 6MWT is the method of choice for assessing functional capacity in systemic connective tissue diseases such as SSc with pulmonary involvement, and the pilot study shows that it can be used as a novel biomarker for assessing of pulmonary involvement.