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25 INNOSC Theranostics and Pharmacological Sciences, 2023, Vol. 6, No. 1 Kivrak, et al.

Table 3. Evaluation results in systemic sclerosis
Parameters Number Minimum Maximum Mean Standard deviation
Age 150 19 78 47.75 13.337
Disease duration (years) 150 0 11 5.41 2.774
Ejection fraction (%) 150 35 72 60.21 4.912
Left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (mm) 150 34 57 42.87 3.764
Right ventricle diameter (mm) 150 2 40 20.92 3.220
Pulmonary artery pressure (mmHg) 150 17 111 31.07 11.816
Tricuspic regurgitation velocity (m/sn) 150 12 96 25.82 10.647

Table 4. Relationship between hypertension and Unlike previous studies [14], we could not
duration of systemic sclerosis detect a significant relationship between DM and

Variables Hypertension Disease duration SSc. This can be explained by the low number of
DM patients and the short duration of DM.
Hypertension HT was observed in 34.7% of patients who
Correlation 1 0.278** participated in our study. We found a significant
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.001 relationship between age and HT in SSc. In
Number 150 150 addition, there was also a significant correlation
Disease duration between HT and disease duration. HT at the
Correlation 0.278** 1 onset of SSc was found to be associated with skin
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.001 lesion, arthritis, pulmonary fibrosis, abnormal
Number 150 150 platelet and ESR levels, and a higher incidence
Statistical significance at p<0.05 of cylindruria. Moreover, the incidence of
gastrointestinal complications was observed to be
Similar to our study, the decrease in myocardial higher in hypertensive patients. The absence of HT
contractility was lower than predicted in many was associated with a higher incidence of anemia.
studies, which is contentious given the presence of In hypertensive patients, the mean pulmonary
myocardial depression in SSc [19-21]. artery pressure was slightly higher, and the mean
In most of our patients, the ESR and CRP levels glomerular filtration rate was significantly lower;
were low. A study has reported that high ESR these results were similar with those observed in
values are strongly associated with pulmonary the Central Ukraine population [5].
hypertension in such patients [22]. High CRP The limitations of our study were the small
levels were observed in 6% of our patients, geographical area constituting the patients included
whereas one-fourth of patients in a study of in our study, the omission of evaluating the age
inflammatory indicators had high CRP levels [23]. of onset of SSc and the initial symptoms, and the
In another study, high CRP levels were observed inability to perform diastolic evaluation on all
in 48% of patients, rising to 80% in patients with patients.
finger ulcers [24]. Low ESR and CRP levels were
attributed to the disease activities. Compared with 4. Conclusions
a regional study in Central Ukraine [5], anemia and
CRP results were lower, while ESR was higher; As seen in our study, patients with SSc in our region
however, cylindruria and proteinuria values were had similar demographic, clinical, laboratory, and
similar. echocardiographic features with those in other
Hyperlipidemia was observed in 12% of countries. The results are comparable with those in
patients who participated in our study. Similar to the UK registry, Pittsburg Scleroderma Databank,
the previous studies, we found that impaired lipid PHAROS registry, CRRG registry, and Brazilian
profile is associated with increased macrovascular registry (GEPRO). Our study was based on the fact
diseases in patients with SSc [25,26]. that there may be regional differences especially

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