Overview: Cardiovascular Manifestations and Management

Abstract

Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) has traditionally been considered a disease of tissue fibrosis, but it is now recognized that vascular disease is playing a fundamental role in pathogenesis and the clinical burden. In fact, the primary target in both initiating and propagating the disease may be blood vessels. The tissue injury and fibrosis clearly associates with an autoimmune process and a widespread obliterative vasculopathy of peripheral arteries and microcirculation. The clinical consequences of the vascular insult are evident from the earliest manifestation of the disease: Raynaud’s phenomenon, caused by a vascular insult to both nutritional and thermoregulatory vessel of the skin.