TY - JOUR T1 - A Preliminary Study of Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Quantification for the Assessment of Skin in Diffuse Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol DO - 10.3899/jrheum.140873 SP - jrheum.140873 AU - Yong Hou AU - Qing-li Zhu AU - He Liu AU - Yu-xin Jiang AU - Liang Wang AU - Dong Xu AU - Meng-tao Li AU - Xiao-feng Zeng AU - Feng-chun Zhang Y1 - 2015/01/15 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2015/01/07/jrheum.140873.abstract N2 - Objective To investigate skin elasticity using acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) quantification in systemic sclerosis (SSc), and compare the modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) with measured shear wave velocity (SWV) and thickness of the skin. Methods Fifteen patients with diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc) and 15 age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls were evaluated. The SWV and thickness of skin were measured at 17 sites corresponding to those assessed in the mRSS in each participant. The SWV measurements of skin were compared between patients with dcSSc and healthy controls. The correlations between the mRSS and the skin SWV and thickness were explored using Spearman’s correlation. Results The SWV values were higher in patients with dcSSc compared with healthy controls at right hand dorsum, right forearm, left hand dorsum, left forearm, right foot dorsum, and left foot dorsum (p < 0.05). In patients with dcSSc, the SWV values of uninvolved skin were higher than those of controls (p < 0.001), and the SWV values increased with increasing skin scores except for skin score 3 (p < 0.05). The sum of the SWV values correlated with total clinical skin score (r = 0.841, p < 0.001), and the sum of the skin thickness correlated with total clinical skin score (r = 0.740, p = 0.002). Conclusion ARFI quantification is feasible and reliable for assessing the skin involvement in dcSSc. ARFI quantification could identify early skin change that may precede palpable skin involvement, and may be a valuable adjunct to skin evaluation in patients with SSc. ER -