Systemic sclerosis & Raynaud's
Association of circulating miR-29b with microvascular dysfunction and digital ulcers in patients with systemic sclerosis: a single-centre pilot study
Authors' conclusion
Overall, reduced circulating miR-29b was associated with advanced digital vasculopathy.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with systemic sclerosis and healthy controls, single centre
- Participants
- 29 vs 17
- Exposure
- SSc vs healthy controls; SSc subgroups by DU history, proximal-distal gradient, renal resistive index (RRI) and NVC pattern
- SScn = 29
- Healthy controls (HC)n = 17reference
- Outcome
- Association of circulating miR-29b with DU occurrence, recurrence and microvascular impairment
Methodological detailspilot, single-centre, observational
- Pilot
- Single-centre
- Observational
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Circulating miR-29b
- Significantly reduced miR-29b in patients with previous or recurrent digital ulcers (DUs) (p=0.024)
- Significantly reduced miR-29b with proximal-distal gradient <30 perfusion units (p=0.028)
- Lower miR-29b with RRI > 0.70 (p=0.03)
- Lower miR-29b with late NVC pattern (p<0.01)
- Lower miR-29b independently associated with DU recurrence in exploratory multivariable Cox regression (p<0.05)
- SSc vs HC: P < 0.001
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Correlations of miR-29b
- Disease activity, r (p<0.01)
- −0.472
- Fibrosis extent, r (p<0.01)
- −0.471
- Cochin hand function score, r (p<0.01)
- −0.454
- RRI, r (p<0.01)
- −0.506
- Disease duration, r (p<0.05)
- 0.333
Original publication
Association of circulating miR-29b with microvascular dysfunction and digital ulcers in patients with systemic sclerosis: a single-centre pilot study. Clin Exp Rheumatol. Published 19 August 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →