Background and aims Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic progressive autoimmune disease. Assessment of skin fibrosis based on modified Rodnan’s skin score (mRSS) are important to determining clinical response and prognosis. Several biomarkers may potential to check skin fibrosis in SSc patients, such as B-cell Activating Factor (BAFF), Pro-collagen Type-1 Terminal Pro-peptide (P1NP), and sCD40L which believed playing role in fibrosis cascade. The aim of study is to evaluate the correlation levels of BAFF, P1NP and sCD40L serum with mRSS in SSc.

Methods This is a cross-sectional study enrolled SSc patients in Rheumatology clinic Hasan Sadikin Hospital Bandung-Indonesia, from Nov 2015 to July 2016. All subjects performed mRSS measurement and blood tests. Data analysed by Rank-Spearman correlation.

Results There are 42 subjects, mean age 40+10 years old, 40 (95.2%) are female, 24 (57.1%) are limited type SSc and 18 (42.9%) are diffuse type SSc. Thirty-nine (92.9%) subjects treated with methotrexate, 29 (69%) subjects with corticosteroid, and 4 (9.5%) subjects with cyclophosphamide. The mean level of BAFF was 1090±386 pg/mL, the mean level of sCD40L was 6858±2665 pg/mL, and the mean level of P1NP was 51.5±25.7 ng/ml. The median of mRSS was 17 (5-36). There are a significant correlation between mRSS and BAFF serum (r=0.710; p=0.016), a significant correlation between mRSS and P1NP serum (r=0.862, p=0.001), There are no significant correlation between mRSS and sCD40L serum (r=0.184; p=0.318).

Conclusions Our study found a significant correlation between BAFF and P1NP serum with mRSS, and no significant correlation between sCD40L serum with mRSS in SSc patients.