Table 3.

Associations of serum proteins (P < 0.05) with the presence/absence of plaque and CIMT in SSc

				CIMT (n = 44)
Biomarker (pg/ml)	No plaque, mean (s.d.) (n = 25)	Plaque, mean (s.d.) (n = 21)	P-value	Correlation coefficients	P-value
Fibrosis
MPIF-1	901.2 (143.7)	265.8 (223.3)	0.17	0.31	0.04*
CC16	14 492.7 (6631.9)	14 845.4 (7555.1)	0.93	0.37	0.01*
Inflammation
IL-2	3.0 (2.6)	5.0 (3.8)	0.02*	−0.17	0.25
CRP	1 627 772.0 (2 437 838.6)	3 856 899.5 (4 734 651.2)	0.00*	0.14	0.35
IL-6	11.0 (13.5)	25.2 (48.5)	0.04*	0.28	0.06*
A-SAA	18 790 613.4 (30 238 222.3)	23 431 668.8 (30 070 001.2)	0.43	0.31	0.04*
Vasculopathy
KGF	0.8 (2.1)	1.6 (2.1)	0.01*	0.19	0.22
ICAM-1	403 423.3 (131 159.9)	539 501.8 (242 768.3)	0.04*	0.16	0.29
PAI-1	9607.8 (6527.1)	6680.8 (5898.0)	0.04*	−0.10	0.29
Endoglin	22 444.1 (9253.0)	8860.8 (0.0394)	0.03*	0.07	0.51
IGFBP-3	404 848.8 (116 838.8)	322 117.3 (93 709.0)	0.00*	0.13	0.66
TM	4826.3 (1865.1) (n = 24)	4412.1 (1262.7)	0.00	0.32	0.03*

CIMT: carotid intima media thickness; MPIF-1: myeloid progenitor inhibitory factor 1; CC16: Clara cell secretory protein 16 kDa; A-SAA: serum amyloid A; KGF: keratinocyte growth factor; ICAM-1: intercellular adhesion molecule 1; PAI-1: plasminogen activator inhibitor 1; IGFBP-3: insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3; TM: thrombomodulin. *P-values <0.05.