Structural and Functional Impairment of Multiple Organs in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis: A MR Imaging Study

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a autoimmune disease of unknown etiology with an estimated global incidence of 0.1‰. SSc characterized by abnormal immune activation, neovascularization, vascular remodeling in pathology, and eventually leads to fibrosis of tissues, skin, and organs [2]. In addition to skin sclerosis, SSc often involved multiple organ involvement, such as finger ulcer, gastroesophageal reflux, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, cardiomyopathy, kidney damage, etc. Neuropsychiatric manifestations such as anxiety and depression may also occur in SSc patients. A long-term follow-up study indicated that cardiomyopathy (14%), cardiovascular disease (12%), and kidney injury (4%) were important causes of death in SSc patients. Therefore, early diagnosis and early intervention for multi-organ complications of SSc can significantly prolong the survival time of SSc patients.Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive, radiation-free imaging examination method with excellent soft tissue contrast, which can achieve one-stop multi-parameter imaging. At present, MRI has been widely used to accurately diagnose and evaluate the structure and function of organs such as heart, brain and kidney. Previous literature has shown that cardiac MRI can identify cardiac injury in patients with SSc earlier than echocardiography even in the early stage. Meanwhile it can find the abnormalities before clinical symptoms. Therefore, MRI is an effective noninvasive imaging method to evaluate the structural and functional damage of heart, brain and kidney in SSc patients.