Biomarker-based clustering identifies distinct pulmonary function trajectories in early systemic sclerosis

Background Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disease in which interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a major determinant of mortality. Given that certain chemokines and adhesion molecules may be involved in the inflammation, subsequent vascular injury, and fibrosis observed in SSc, their circulating levels in peripheral blood may reflect the disease processes ranging from inflammation to vascular damage and fibrotic remodeling. However, the potential of these biomarkers to identify patient subgroups with divergent pulmonary trajectories remains to be elucidated. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from patients with early severe SSc (diffuse cutaneous SSc irrespective of ILD status or limited cutaneous SSc with ILD; disease duration