Patient characteristics
Clinical characteristics of SSs patients are shown in Table 1. Most patients had limited cutaneous SSc (83%), and 27% had active disease (≥ 3 ESSG score). Of note, only 5 (6%) patients were obese (BMI ≥ 30), while 9 (10%) were underweight (BMI ≤ 18.5). At study entry, drugs taken were: calcium channel blockers (CCB) (67.4%), iloprost (48.3%) glucocorticoids (34.8%), endothelin receptor antagonists (ERA) (22.3%), methotrexate (19.5%), mycophenolate mofetil (13.5%), phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PDE5i) (tadalafil, sildefanil) (8.9%). No patient was taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. In Table 2, the comparison of demographics, anthropometric characteristics, and serum levels of cytokines and adipokines between SSc and HD are shown. No significant differences in anthropometric characteristics were detected, but a trend toward a lower BMI was seen in SSc patients.