THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN GASTROINTESTINAL SYMPTOMS AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS IN SYSTEMIC SCLEROSIS PATIENTS

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic autoimmune disease frequently associated with gastrointestinal (GIT) involv ement and malnutrition, which can worsen disease outcomes and quality of life.This study aimed to assess digestive involvement and the prevalence of malnutrition in a group o f SSc patients and to evaluate the relationship between malnutrition, symptom burden, and disease activity.Materials and methods: We included 65 patients with SSc.The UCLA GIT 2.0 questionnaire measured the digestive symptom burden.Malnutrition risk was assessed using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) and Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) scores.We analyzed correlations between malnutrition status, disease activity (EUSTAR-AI index), and digestive symptom burden measured by UCLA GIT 2.0 score.Results: Almost 70% of the subjects showed digestive involvement.The prevalence of maln utrition (MNA) was 6.6%, and the risk of malnutrition was 7.7% (MUST).Malnourished individuals experienced significantly higher scores in UCLA (p=0.009),UCLA reflux (p=0.05),UCLA emotional well-being (p=0.001), and UCLA social function (p=0.08), as well as increased disease activity scores (EUSTAR-AI-p=0.027).Conclusions: Digestive involvement and malnutrition are frequent among SSc patients, particularly those with hig her disease activity scores and GIT involvement.These results highlight the need for rapid gastrointestinal and nutritional management in SSc to improve patient outcomes and quality of life.