PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hung, Emily W.
AU  - Mayes, Maureen D.
AU  - Sharif, Roozbeh
AU  - Assassi, Shervin
AU  - Machicao, Victor I.
AU  - Hosing, Chitra
AU  - St. Clair, E. William
AU  - Furst, Daniel E.
AU  - Khanna, Dinesh
AU  - Forman, Stephen
AU  - Mineishi, Shin
AU  - Phillips, Kristine
AU  - Seibold, James R.
AU  - Bredeson, Christopher
AU  - Csuka, Mary Ellen
AU  - Nash, Richard A.
AU  - Wener, Mark H.
AU  - Simms, Robert
AU  - Ballen, Karen
AU  - Leclercq, Sharon
AU  - Storek, Jan
AU  - Goldmuntz, Ellen
AU  - Welch, Beverly
AU  - Keyes-Elstein, Lynette
AU  - Castina, Sharon
AU  - Crofford, Leslie J.
AU  - Mcsweeney, Peter
AU  - Sullivan, Keith M.
TI  - Gastric Antral Vascular Ectasia and Its Clinical Correlates in Patients with Early Diffuse Systemic Sclerosis in the SCOT Trial
AID  - 10.3899/jrheum.121087
DP  - 2013 Apr 01
TA  - The Journal of Rheumatology
PG  - 455--460
VI  - 40
IP  - 4
4099  - http://www.jrheum.org/content/40/4/455.short
4100  - http://www.jrheum.org/content/40/4/455.full
SO  - J Rheumatol2013 Apr 01; 40
AB  - 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.