Systemic sclerosis & Raynaud's
Prevalence, distribution and associations of the scleroderma capillaroscopic patterns: new insights from the Italian SPRING-SIR registry
Authors' conclusion
SSc-NVC patterns are not strictly time-dependent and can be observed at any stage of the disease, suggesting that microvascular damage progression is heterogeneous across different disease periods.
Study context
- Population
- Systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients undergoing standardized nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC), Italian SPRING-SIR registry
- Participants
- 1,689 patients
- Exposure
- Early vs Active vs Late vs Normal/non-specific
- Outcome
- Prevalence/distribution of NVC patterns ('early', 'active', 'late') in relation to disease duration
Methodological detailsregistry-based (SPRING-SIR), multivariable logistic regression
- Registry-based (SPRING-SIR)
- Multivariable logistic regression
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Prevalence of NVC patterns
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Pattern prevalence by disease duration (≤5 yrs vs >10 yrs)
- 'Early' decreased from ≤5 yrs to >10 yrs
- 30.3% to 14.6%
- 'Active' decreased from ≤5 yrs to >10 yrs
- 51.9% to 43.5%
- P for early and active decrease
- P < 0.01
- 'Late' increased from ≤5 yrs to >10 yrs
- 13.2% to 36.0%
- P for late increase
- P < 0.001
Associations of the 'late' pattern
- 'Late' associated with internal organ involvement, anti-topoisomerase antibodies and more therapies
- P < 0.01
- Multivariable: strong association of 'late' with skin/peripheral vascular involvement
Associations of 'early' and 'active' patterns
- Associated with limited-cutaneous subset
- P < 0.01
- Associated with anti-centromere antibodies
- P < 0.001
'Late' pattern in disease duration ≤2 yrs and scleroderma renal crisis
- Prevalence of 'late' pattern at ≤2 yrs
- 10.9%
- Significantly associated with scleroderma renal crisis
- P = 0.012
Original publication
Prevalence, distribution and associations of the scleroderma capillaroscopic patterns: new insights from the Italian SPRING-SIR registry. Rheumatology (Oxford). Published 14 December 2025. doi:10.
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