Survival in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis: A Single Center Cohort

Abstract

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic disease characterized by auto-antibody positivity, vasculopathy, and progressive fibrosis in the skin and internal organs. Life expectancy in SSc is decreased due to reasons both related to the involvement of the disease or not related to the disease. Although mortality rate due to SSc have decreased over the years, it still remains increased compared to the general population. In our study, we aimed to report the main causes of death and associated clinical, laboratory and demographic characteristics of SSc patients followed in our center. Among 168 patients followed up with the diagnosis of SSc in Kocaeli University Faculty of Medicine Rheumatology Polyclinic between 2007 and 2022, 157 patients who fulfilled the 2013 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) classification criteria were included. Most of the patients (66.4%) were women (88%) with limited skin involvement and the disease duration was 10.3 (±6.3) years. During the 15-year follow-up, 23 (14.6%) patients died. The patients who died were older at the time of diagnosis with more digital ulcers (active and inactive) and malignancy. There was no difference between the two patient groups in terms of auto-antibody and major organ involvements. The most common cause of death in our cohort was infection (n=5, 21.7%), and 3 (13%) of these patients died due to COVID19 and 2 (8.7%) due to pneumonia due to other infectious agents. The second most common cause of death after infection was found to be malignancy (n=4, 17.4%). As a result of Cox regression analysis, an increase of approximately 1 year in age at diagnosis was associated with a 10-fold increase in the risk of death (hazard ratio (HR) = 10.93; 95% CI = 10.51-11.37). In conclusion, our study contributes to the few survival data reported to date from SSc cohorts in our country that are carefully followed. While interpreting our results, it should be considered that the clinical features of SSc patients may show geographical and ethnic differences.