TY - JOUR T1 - Gastric Antral Vascular Ectasia and Its Clinical Correlates in Patients with Early Diffuse Systemic Sclerosis in the SCOT Trial JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 455 LP - 460 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.121087 VL - 40 IS - 4 AU - Emily W. Hung AU - Maureen D. Mayes AU - Roozbeh Sharif AU - Shervin Assassi AU - Victor I. Machicao AU - Chitra Hosing AU - E. William St. Clair AU - Daniel E. Furst AU - Dinesh Khanna AU - Stephen Forman AU - Shin Mineishi AU - Kristine Phillips AU - James R. Seibold AU - Christopher Bredeson AU - Mary Ellen Csuka AU - Richard A. Nash AU - Mark H. Wener AU - Robert Simms AU - Karen Ballen AU - Sharon Leclercq AU - Jan Storek AU - Ellen Goldmuntz AU - Beverly Welch AU - Lynette Keyes-Elstein AU - Sharon Castina AU - Leslie J. Crofford AU - Peter Mcsweeney AU - Keith M. Sullivan Y1 - 2013/04/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/40/4/455.abstract N2 - Objective. To describe the prevalence and clinical correlates of endoscopic gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE; “watermelon stomach”) in early diffuse systemic sclerosis (SSc). Methods. Subjects with early, diffuse SSc and evidence of specific internal organ involvement were considered for the Scleroderma: Cyclophosphamide Or Transplant (SCOT) trial. In the screening procedures, all patients underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Patients were then categorized into those with or without endoscopic evidence of GAVE. Demographic data, clinical disease characteristics, and autoantibody data were compared using Pearson chi-square or Student t tests. Results. Twenty-three of 103 (22.3%) individuals were found to have GAVE on endoscopy. Although not statistically significant, anti-topoisomerase I (anti-Scl70) was detected less frequently among those with GAVE (18.8% vs 44.7%; p = 0.071). Similarly, anti-RNP antibodies (anti-U1 RNP) showed a trend to a negative association with GAVE (0 vs 18.4%; p = 0.066). There was no association between anti-RNA polymerase III and GAVE. Patients with GAVE had significantly more erythema or vascular ectasias in other parts of the stomach (26.1% vs 5.0%; p = 0.003). Conclusion. Endoscopic GAVE was present on screening in almost one-fourth of these highly selected patients with early and severe diffuse SSc. While anti-Scl70 and anti-U1 RNP trended toward a negative association with GAVE, there was no correlation between anti-RNA Pol III and GAVE. Patients with GAVE had a higher frequency of other gastric vascular ectasias outside the antrum, suggesting that GAVE may represent part of the spectrum of the vasculopathy in SSc. ER -