Detecting Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) by Ultrasound

Echosense Ltd.1 enrolled

Overview

Doppler signals can be recorded from the lung parenchyma by means of a pulsed Doppler ultrasound system incorporating a special signal processing package; i.e. the transthoracic parametric Doppler (TPD) (EchoSense Ltd., Haifa, Israel). Systemic sclerosis patients often develop pulmonary vascular disease leading to pulmonary hypertension. The TPD system may provide important insight into pulmonary blood vessels characteristics by the LDS signals that are related to pulmonary hypertension. The TPD performance in detecting PAH in SSc patients will be assessed in the study.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Systemic Sclerosis Pulmonary Hypertension

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: 1. Able and willing to give signed informed consent prior to enrollment 2. Male or female, ≥ 18 years of age 3. Diagnosis of SSc according to 2013 ACR/EULAR SSc Classification Criteria (van den Hoogen 2013): Score ≥ 9. 4. Patients with RHC data available from measurement within 3 weeks prior to TPD assessment 5. No change in or initiation of PAH specific therapy between the last RHC and TPD Exclusion Criteria: 1. People unable or unwilling to give informed consent. 2. PCWP or LVEDP \> 15 mmHg 3. Any PH etiology outside Group 1 (Dana Point, 2008) 4. Pregnant women 5. Patients having severe chest wall deformity

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Number of SSc patients correctly identified with pulmonary hypertension severity in each of the 4 defined groups by RHC.

Analyze Doppler data of 4 SSc groups(according to pulmonary hypertension sevirity ) resulting in typical features. The features will be implemented in a pre-determined diagnostic algorithm that will determine the overall statistical analysis success of the method in comparison to RHC data.

Time frame: 12 month