Objectives:
1. To detect pulmonary hypertension amongst patients with connective tissue diseases through systematic screening
2. To understand the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension in Chinese patients with connective tissue diseases
Study design:
The study is a territory-wide pulmonary hypertension screening project. Patients fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria will undergo screen echocardiography as baseline to detect subclinical pulmonary hypertension.
Screening procedure:
Participants will undergo usual clinical assessment by the rheumatology teams of the parent hospitals including standard 12-lead ECG and 6-minute hall walk distance. then they will be referred to the Division of Cardiology, the Department of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong for (1) Echocardiography and (2) BNP (or pro-NT BNP) assay. The echocardiography will be performed based on the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)/European Respiratory Society (ERS) Guidelines. The echocardiographic probability of pulmonary hypertension will be determined (low, intermediate, and high).
Statistical analysis and power calculation:
There are no studies on which to calculate a power equation, because there are no previous reports on the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension in Chinese rheumatological patients. The sample size is based on our local prevalence of the rheumatological diseases.
Continuous variables will be expressed in mean ± SD. Statistical comparisons were performed using Student's t test or Fisher's exact test, as appropriate. The outcomes would be analyzed.
