title: Assessment of damage and activity in systemic sclerosis.
abstract: The determination of damage and activity in the course of a disease are important matters. Monitoring damage activity is critical in the evaluation of individual patients and in evaluating treatment efficacy in clinical trials. A disease damage (severity) scale has been published for systemic sclerosis. A number of potential cytokine and other soluble protein markers of disease activity for this disease have been proposed in recent publications, reviewed here.
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, USA. medsger@msx.dept-med.pitt.edu
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Medsger
mesh_terms: D000209:Acute-Phase Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D000209:Acute-Phase Proteins