Objectives: To evaluate the distensibility of large arteries in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc).
Design: Prospective case-control study including unselected patients with SSc.
Setting: One cardiology and two internal medicine units in a teaching hospital.
Subjects: Eighteen patients with SSc and controls matched for age, sex, height, weight and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (BP).
Intervention: The timing of Korotkoff's sounds (QKD interval), a newly described noninvasive ambulatory method was used to measure arterial distensibility during 24 h.
Main outcome measures: Two endpoints were used: QKD 100-60 (normalized for a heart rate of 100 beats min-1 and a systolic BP of 100 mmHg) and the slope of QKD against pulse pressure.
Results: The patients with SSc had a lower slope of QKD against pulse pressure than the controls (median 0.55, range 0-1.21, versus 0.92, range 0.5-1.34, respectively; P = 0.003), and a lower QKD 100-60 (medians/ranges respectively 191 [162-216] and 203 [169-231]: P = 0.01).
Conclusions: These results indicate that arterial distensibility of large arteries is decreased in SSc.