Symptoms Of Scleroderma

Hypertension

Scleroderma patients often develop chronic hypertension, as this condition causes the body to create excess collagen and deposit it into connective tissues and blood vessels around the body. The blood vessels become thickened and stiff when they are affected, causing impairment to their ability to expand and appropriately adapt to the different conditions of the blood flowing through them. When general systemic hypertension is problematic, severe hypertension that becomes concentrated in the arteries that supply the affected individual's lungs, brain, heart, and kidneys can be life-threatening and urgent. An individual with scleroderma-precipitated hypertension can incur kidney damage when hypertension occurs in the renal arteries that supply the kidneys with oxygenated blood. Heart damage can occur if hypertension becomes severe in the pulmonary arteries that supply the lungs because the right side of the heart has to work harder to pump blood into the lungs. This level of strain over time can result in pulmonary and right ventricular failure.

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