The assessment of malnutrition and severity of gastrointestinal disease by using symptom-based questionnaires in systemic sclerosis: is it related to severe organ involvement or capillary rarefaction at microcirculation?

Gastrointestinal (GI) system is commonly affected in sytemic sclerosis (SSc) patients who are also known to be at risk for malnutrition. We aimed to investigate the relationship between severity of GI disease, malnutrition and severity of organ involvement including microvasculopathy.A hundred and thirty-four SSc patients were included into the study; disease activity and severity, the University of California, Los Angeles, Scleroderma Clinical...