{
  "abstract": "Introduction Patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) presents vascular dysfunction and microvascular alterations that can lead to ischemia and fibrosis, resulting in an increased cardiovascular risk (CVR) compared to the general population.The use of conventional CVR estimation methods, such as the SCORE2/OP model, may underestimate the true CVR in patients with SSc, given that these models are developed in healthy populations.The detection of atherosclerotic plaques through carotid ultrasound allows for more accurate CVR reclassification, identifying patients at very high risk who are not detected by traditional methods.The objective of this study is to analyze the usefulness of carotid ultrasound for assessing CVR in patients with SSc compared to the SCORE2/OP model as a conventional method.Material and Methods Cross-sectional observational study of patients with systemic SSc (2013 ACR/EULAR criteria).Clinical, laboratory, and demographic variables, as well as blood pressure were recorded. Ten-year cardiovascular risk was calculated using the SCORE2/OP model.Carotid artery ultrasound was performed with measurement of intima-media thickness and assessment of the presence of atherosclerotic plaques.Patients were categorized according to SCORE2/OP as low, high, or very high risk; and reclassified as very high risk if atherosclerotic plaques were detected by ultrasound, regardless of the SCORE2/OP result.Results 43 patients (86% women) were included, with a mean age (SD) of 56 (12.25) years and a mean duration of SSc of 9.19 (6.98) years.20.93% of patients had arterial hypertension and 32.55% dyslipidemia, all of them controlled with medication. No patient had diabetes. One patient is an active smoker, and 2 patients are ex-smokers. 55.79% had an abnormal BMI (6.97% underweight, 27.90% overweight, 16.27% grade I obesity and 4.65% grade III obesity).Using the SCORE2 model, 74.41% of patients were classified as low to moderate risk, 16.27% as high risk, and 9.30% as very high risk.Carotid ultrasound identified atherosclerotic plaques in three patients, all women and nonsmokers.One case was already classified as very high risk by SCORE2, but the other two were classified as low/moderate risk, thus moving to very high risk due to the presence of subclinical atherosclerotic disease.Conclusions The use of carotid artery ultrasound as a complementary tool to the SCORE2/OP model has allowed the reclassification of 6.25% of patients who had been categorized as having low/moderate CVR.This reinforces the role of vascular imaging as a complementary tool in CVR stratification in special populations, such as those with systemic sclerosis.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "ASI Valencia Sur (Hospital La Fe/Hospital Arnau de Vilanova), Valencia, Spain"
      ],
      "name": "Carmen Riesco Bárcena"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Hospital La Fe, Valencia"
      ],
      "name": "Elena Grau Garcia"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Hospital La Fe, Valencia"
      ],
      "name": "Jose Andrés Román Ivorra"
    }
  ],
  "title": "P.148 Usefulness of vascular imaging as a complement to classic methods for estimating cardiovascular risk in systemic sclerosis",
  "uid": "7e248822-3771-5f3c-a0a7-a5e3e60ffae5"
}