FRI0244 Assessing organ involvement and current symptoms as indicators for disease progression in 3047 patient cohort

Background To improve detection and follow-up of patients with systemic sclerosis, the German Network for Systemic Scleroderma (DNSS) was founded and initiated a registry gathering information on diagnosis, clinical symptoms and therapy of SSc patients. Methods Up to date, more than 3000 patients have been grouped into four descriptive disease subsets, i.e. limited cutaneous disease (lcSSc), diffuse cutaneous disease (dcSSc), overlap-syndrome and undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD) with scleroderma features. Disease progress between initial patient registration (year 0) and fourth follow-up (year 4) was measured using organ involvement and present symptoms as indicators. Results Recent analyses revealed that 49% of patients suffer from limited SSc (lSSc), 31% from diffuse SSc (dSSc) and 10% of patients were diagnosed with an overlap-syndrome. 8% had an undifferentiated form while Scleroderma sine scleroderma was present in 0.7% of patients. Follow-up data are available from 1595 patients after one year, from 901 patients followed for two years, 573 patients followed for three years and 386 followed for at least four years. After four years a significant increase was detected in the frequency of pulmonary hypertension (PAH) (14.4% to 24.2%, p=0.001), lung fibrosis (38.8% to 47.6%, p=0.006), oesophagus involvement (58.5% to 74.8%, p=0.0001), bowel involvement (13.6% to 19.9%, p=0.03), Kidney (10.7% to 15.8%, p=0.03) and Heart (13.4% to 24.0%, p