Scleroderma - Causes

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Pulmonary fibrosis also places the patient at higher risk for lung cancer. This condition may be due to severe dysfunction in the esophagus, which causes patients to aspirate tiny amounts of stomach acid.

The most important indication of future worsening in the lungs appears to be inflammation in the small airways (alveolitis). Doctors detect alveolitis by using a lung test called bronchoalveolar lavage.

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Pulmonary Hypertension. Pulmonary hypertension is the narrowing of the pulmonary arteries in the lung. The narrowing of the arteries creates resistance to blood flow and increases the workload of the heart. The heart becomes enlarged from pumping blood against this resistance. Some symptoms of pulmonary hypertension include shortness of breath, chest pain, weakness, and fatigue. Shortness of breath, the primary symptom of pulmonary hypertension, worsens over time. The goal of treatment is to control the symptoms, although the disease usually develops into heart failure.

Pulmonary hypertension can develop in one of two ways:

• As a complication of pulmonary fibrosis
• As a direct outcome of the scleroderma process itself. In this case, it is most likely to develop in patients with limited scleroderma after many years.

Click the icon to see an image of cor pulmonale.

Kidney Symptoms and Complications

Signs of kidney problems, such as increased levels of protein in the urine and mild high blood pressure (hypertension), are common in scleroderma. As with pulmonary hypertension, the degree of severity depends on whether the kidney problems are acute or chronic.

Slow Progression. The typical course of kidney involvement in scleroderma is a slow progression that may produce some damage but does not usually lead to kidney failure.