Genesis of Scleroderma: Role of Environmental Factors in 100 Patients With Scleroderma and 300 Controls

Genesis of Scleroderma: Role of Environmental Factors in 100 Patients With Scleroderma and 300 Healthy Controls

Scleroderma is an autoimmune disease of unknown origin. Recently, the role of environmental factors, and particularly toxic drug exposure, in the genesis of scleroderma has been suggested.

This prompted us to conduct this prospective, case-control, multicentric study, including 2 groups of subjects:

• 100 patients with scleroderma
• 300 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. The aim of our study is to determine whether exposure to toxics is higher in patients with scleroderma compared with healthy controls.

The data of patients with scleroderma and healthy controls will be compared regarding:

• a standardized questionnaire about "cursus laboris" at initial inclusion
• a search for toxics in blood, urine and hair: at initial exvaluation, 6 month and 2 year-follow-up

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients with scleroderma with:

  • age range : 18 to 76 years
  • written consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• patients with other connective-tissue disorders
• pregnant women
• patients with psychiatric conditions
• unwritten consent