Association between clinical findings and level of Endothelin-I and Urotensin-II in systemic sclerosis patients

Systemic sclerosis is a multisystemic collagen tissue disorder with an unknown etiology. Endothelin-1 is a vasoconstructive peptide and has a role in pathological changes which is characteristic for systemic sclerosis. Urotensin-II is more vasoconstructive peptide than endothelin-1 and found in many diseases` etiopathogenesis associated with vascular structure. This study is aim to determine the levels of vasoactive peptides and comparison of clinical and laboratory findings in systemic sclerosis that include pathology of vascular systemIn this study, we included 55 systemic sclerosis patients diagnosed as American College of Rheumatology criteria and 30 healthy control with similar age and sex. We used Modified Rodnan Skin Scoring, Valentini Disease Activity Index, Disease Severity Index and Functional Scoring Survey for evaluation of patients. Plasma endothelin-1 and urotensin-II levels are measured by immunoassay methodThe mean level of endothelin-1 is found statistically high in systemic sclerosis` patients than control group (p=0.006). There is no association between endothelin-1 level and the type of disease and activity (p>0.05); however, the level of endothelin-1 is found statistically high in systemic sclerosis` patients involving cardiovascular system (p=0.038). Also the mean level of urotensin-II is found statistically high in patients (p=0.003). But no association is found between disease type, activity, involvement of organs (p>0.05). Furthermore, we found a positive correlation between mean level of endothelin-1 and urotensin-II (r=0.887, p=0.000As a result; we concluded that endothelin-1 and urotensin-II have role in pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis due to findings of high levels of these two vasoactive peptides in patients.