[THU0309] CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS IN LATE VS EARLY –ONSET SYSTEMIC SCLEROSIS (SSC) G. Cuomo, M. Iudici, G. Abignano, G. Valentini. Second Universty of Naples, Rheumatology Unit, Naples, Italy Background: Differences have been so far pointed out in the clinical manifestations and disease course in patients with a number of autoimmune rheumatic diseases and different age at onset (1-3). Objectives: To investigate the occurrence of differences between early and late onset SSc. Methods: 260 SSc patients (233 females) with a median age at the onset of the disease of 40.5 years (range 8-74) were consecutively admitted to a tertiary centre from November 1st 2000 to October 31st 2008. They were divided into 2 groups: early onset (<40.5 years) and late onset (≥40.5 years). Differences in each of the epidemiological, clinical and serological aspects collected in all the patients at admission were analysed. Results: Table 1 lists the significant differences detected between the 2 groups. Early onset patients were found to have a longer disease duration at presentation, a higher prevalence of anti-Scl70 positivity and a higher prevalence of scleroderma renal crisis; a lower prevalence of antinucleolar antibody positivity; a lower percentage of pulmonary hypertension; a lower HAQ-DI and a lower prevalence of heart involvement. No difference was detected in clinical subset distribution. Late onset (138) Early onset (122) p Disease duration mean (sd) 6 (6) 10 (10) 0.003 Range (median) 0.5-26 (5) 0.5-45 (6) Serological subset Scl70 43 54 0.04 Nucleolar 9 23 0.004 PAPs ≥40mmHG (echocardiography) 14/124 3/119 0.01 HAQ-DI mean (sd) 0.65 (0.7) 0.5 (0.7) 0.037 Range (median) 0-0.275 (0.375) 0-0.25 (0.125) Severity scale Late onset (138) Early onset(122) p 0-1 2-3-4 0-1 2-3-4 Heart 117 21 121 1 <0.0001 Kidney 138 0 117 5 0.02 Conclusion: Our study demonstrate that similarly to systemic lupus erithematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, distinct differences related to age at onset also occur in SSc patients. References: • Calvo-Alen J. et al, Clin Rheumatol 2005 • Lalani S. et al, J Rheumatol 2010 • Ho CT et al, Ann Rheum 1998 Disclosure of Interest: None declared Citation: Ann Rheum Dis 2010;69(Suppl3):247 Session: Scleroderma, Myositis and related syndromes

CUOMO, Giovanna;Iudici, M.;Abignano, G.;Valentini, G.

2010