Scleroderma heart disease

Heart disease is a frequent and often severe feature of systemic sclerosis (scleroderma). Cardiomyopathy, with ventricular diastolic dysfunction and arrhythmias, is the most important form, since it is associated with a very poor prognosis. The current challenge is to define its pattern and identify individuals at risk, but evaluation in vivo may be hard to perform. The aim of this review is to provide an update on the clinical aspects of scleroderma heart disease and the early pivotal role that coronary microcirculation dysfunction plays in its development. A discussion of the diagnostic tools now available for this frequently asymptomatic condition will be provided. Treatment options will be reviewed, even though no cure for systemic sclerosis exists, and the current therapy of diastolic dysfunction remains unsatisfactory.