Late Gadolinium Enhancement in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging Is Associated with High Renal Resistive Index in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis

Assessment of kidney involvement in systemic sclerosis: From scleroderma renal crisis to subclinical renal vasculopathy

The spectrum of kidney involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc) includes scleroderma renal crisis, widely recognized as the most severe renal-vascular complication, but also several forms of chronic renal vasculopathy and reduced renal function are complications of scleroderma. Scleroderma renal crisis, myeloperoxidase-antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody associated glomerulonephritis, penicillamine-associated renal disease, abnormal urinalysis, alteration of vascular endothelial markers, scleroderma associated-vasculopathy with abnormal renal resistance indices and cardiorenal syndromes type 5 were also reported in SSc patients. A frequent form of renal involvement in SSc patients is a subclinical renal vasculopathy, characterized by vascular damage and normal renal function. Indeed, asymptomatic renal changes, expressed by increase of intrarenal stiffness, are often non-progressive in SSc patients but can lead to a reduction in renal functional reserve. The purpose of this review is to provide an assessment of kidney involvement in SSc, from SRC to subclinical renal vasculopathy.

Evaluation of Cardiac Function of Pregnant Women with High Blood Pressure during Gestation Period and Coupling of Hearts with Peripheral Vessels by Ultrasonic Cardiogram under Artificial Intelligence Algorithm

The research was aimed at analyzing the value of the optimized eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm-based ultrasound cardiogram images in the diagnosis of pregnant hypertension patients. A total of 145 pregnant women (85 cases suffered from hypertension disease during pregnancy and 60 other normal women were healthy) were selected as the reference to the comparison and analysis of ultrasound cardiac function parameter, common carotid artery parameter, and the coupling relationship between hearts and cervical vessels of pregnant hypertension patients. The results demonstrated ultrasound cardiac function parameter of pregnant hypertension patients as follows. The maximum volume of the left atrium (LAVmax) was 35.65 mm, left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) was 31.07 mm, and left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) was 88.73 mm. All the above indexes were obviously higher than those of the normal control group (P < 0.05). Besides, intima-media thickness (IMT) of common carotid artery (465.84 μm), pulse wave velocity (PWV) (8.09 m/s), pressure of turning point 1 from isovolumic contraction phase to ejection phase (PT1) (126.5 mmHg), arterial enhancement pressure (AP) (6.14 mmHg), and arterial pressure enhancement index (8.58%) were all significantly higher than those of the normal control group (P < 0.05). In addition, the correlation between the coupling (E/A) of hearts and carotid artery of pregnant hypertension patients and PWV was not obvious (r = -0.08432, P > 0.05). The results of the research indicated that intima-media inside carotid artery of pregnant hypertension patients thickened obviously, and it became less elastic compared with that of normal healthy pregnant women. What is more, cardiac morphological changes were manifested mainly as the enlargement of the left atrial chamber and the thickening of the interventricular septum. Volume load and blood flow velocity both increased, and left ventricular diastolic function was damaged. XGBoost algorithm-based ultrasound cardiogram images could improve the diagnostic effects of hypertension during pregnancy effectively.

Estimated glomerular filtration rate and renal resistive index as possible predictive markers of mortality in systemic sclerosis

OBJECTIVE

Subclinical nephropathy is underestimated in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Study aim is to evaluate the role of renal resistance indices (RRI) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) assessed by Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) as predictive markers of mortality during 10 years of follow-up in SSc patients.

METHODS

181 SSc patients (60 years, 152 females) were enrolled. At baseline, the GFR was estimated in 181 SSc patients and RRI was measured in 122 SSc patients. During a follow-up of 10 years we recorded the main complications of disease, date and causes of death.

RESULTS

eGFR shows a linear negative correlation with RRI. RRI showed a correlation with systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP). Overall survival is lower in SSc patients with eGFR<60 ml/min and RRI ≥0.70 than in SSc patients with eGFR≥60 ml/min (p<0.0001) and with RRI<0.70 (p<0.01) both for mortality due to SSc and all causes. In multivariate analysis, eGFR<60 ml/min [HR 6.429, 95%CI (1.006-41.08), p<0.05] and forced vital capacity (FVC) [HR 0.954, 95%CI (0.911-1), p<0.05] are predictive markers of mortality due to SSc, while eGFR [HR 3.617, 95%CI (1.370-9.554), p<0.01], RRI [HR 0.210, 95% CI (0.068-0.649), p<0.01], age [HR 1.062, 95%CI (1.023-1.103), p<0.01], FVC [HR 0.967, 95%CI (0.946-0.989), p<0.01] and disease activity index (DAI) [HR 1.663, 95%CI (1.262-2.191), p<0.0001] are predictive markers of mortality due to all causes.

CONCLUSION

We demonstrate that eGFR is a predictive marker of mortality due to SSc and to all causes, conversely RRI is predictive marker of mortality due to all causes.

Early myocardial damage and microvascular dysfunction in asymptomatic patients with systemic sclerosis: A cardiovascular magnetic resonance study with cold pressor test

Purpose

Cardiac involvement in Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) is increasingly recognized as a mayor cause of morbidity and mortality. The aim of present study is to investigate the early stages of cardiac involvement in SSc by Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), combining the non-invasive detection of myocardial inflammation and fibrosis using T2 and T1 mapping techniques and the assessment of microcirculatory impairment through perfusion response to cold pressor test (CPT).

Methods

40 SSc patients (30 females, mean age: 42.1 years) without cardiac symptoms and 10 controls underwent CMR at 1.5 T unit. CMR protocol included: native and contrast-enhanced T1 mapping, T2 mapping, T2-weighted, cineMR and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging. Microvascular function was evaluated by comparing myocardial blood flow (MBF) on perfusion imaging acquired at rest and after CPT. Native myocardial T1 and T2 relaxation times, extracellular volume fraction (ECV), T2 signal intensity ratio, biventricular volumes and LGE were assessed in each patient.

Results

SSc patients had significantly higher mean myocardial T1 (1029±32ms vs. 985±18ms, p<0.01), ECV (30.1±4.3% vs. 26.7±2.4%, p<0.05) and T2 (50.1±2.8ms vs. 47±1.5ms, p<0.01) values compared with controls. No significant differences were found between absolute MBF values at rest and after CPT; whereas lower MBF variation after CPT was observed in SSc patients (+33 ± 14% vs. +44 ± 12%, p<0.01). MBF variation had inverse correlation with native T1 values (r: -0.32, p<0.05), but not with ECV.

Conclusions

Myocardial involvement in SSc at preclinical stage increases native T1, T2 and ECV values, reflecting inflammation and fibrosis, and reduces vasodilatory response to CPT, as expression of microvascular dysfunction.