@article {HOFSTEE100, author = {HERMAN M.A. HOFSTEE and ALEXANDRE E. VOSKUYL and ANTON VONK NOORDEGRAAF and YVO M. SMULDERS and PIET E. POSTMUS and BEN A.C. DIJKMANS and ERIK H. SERN{\'E}}, title = {Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in Systemic Sclerosis Is Associated with Profound Impairment of Microvascular Endothelium-dependent Vasodilatation}, volume = {39}, number = {1}, pages = {100--105}, year = {2012}, doi = {10.3899/jrheum.110397}, publisher = {The Journal of Rheumatology}, abstract = {Objective. Impaired microvascular function may contribute to organ complications in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). We investigated whether SSc patients with and without pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) show a graded impairment of microvascular function compared to healthy controls. Methods. Twenty-two patients with SSc and 22 controls were studied. All patients underwent right heart catheterization; 6 had no PAH (SSc-nonPAH) and 16 had PAH (SSc-PAH). Acetylcholine (ACh)-mediated endothelium-dependent vasodilatation and sodium nitroprusside (SNP)-mediated endothelium-independent vasodilatation were assessed by iontophoresis combined with laser Doppler flowmetry. Results. Compared to sex- and age-matched controls, ACh-mediated vasodilatation was reduced in SSc-PAH (340.4\% vs 79.5\%, respectively; p \< 0.01), but not in SSc-nonPAH (340.4\% vs 397.9\%; p = 0.90). No significant differences were present between the groups in SNP-mediated vasodilatation. Conclusion. Systemic microvascular endothelium-dependent vasodilatation is markedly reduced in SSc complicated by PAH.}, issn = {0315-162X}, URL = {https://www.jrheum.org/content/39/1/100}, eprint = {https://www.jrheum.org/content/39/1/100.full.pdf}, journal = {The Journal of Rheumatology} }