Asian Journal of Medical Principles and Clinical Practice

Systemic sclerosis (SS) is a systemic disease with heterogeneous clinical manifestations of the skin and internal organs. It is believed that the triggering mechanism of its development is initial vascular damage, which leads to inflammatory reactions and the development of the accumulation of collagen and other components of the extracellular matrix. It goes without saying what a disease treatment is. Diagnosis of SS is carried out by clinical observation and using methods such as the Rodnan skin counter (mRSS), durometry, cutometry, and ultrasound determination of skin thickness. These methods are quite of thickness of intima complex (TIC) consuming and subjective. In addition, these methods do not provide information about the activity of the fibrotic process. These disadvantages of the listed methods can be compensated for by studying biomarkers that reflect the activity of inflammatory and fibrotic processes, but can be used to assess the prognosis and effectiveness of treatment. The aim of the review focuses on cardiac and fibrotic biomarkers of patients with scleroderma. These include growth factors, cytokines and proteases, their inhibitors, as well as proteins of the extracellular matrix, especially collagens, adapted to skin biopsies and in serum samples from patients with SS. Summarized information on non-invasive physical and laboratory studies is proposed, which provides a better understanding of cardiovascular disease and fibrotic activity, can be effectively used to assess the potential therapeutic response and help in choosing the opTICal treatment options for SS.