International Scholarly Research Notices

Research Article

Anorectal Motility and Sensation Abnormalities and Its Correlation with Anorectal Symptoms in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis: A Preliminary Study

Table 1

Demographic characteristics of the study populations. Comparisons between SSc patients and matched normal controls are performed by Student’s 𝑡 -test. Data are shown as mean ± SE, (range of values), or percentages. Mean GI symptoms: mean of total GI symptoms scored as prevalence, self-reported on the GI symptoms questionnaire by SSc patients or normal controls. Daily GI meds: the percentage of subjects per group that are on daily medication (s) to treat GI symptoms. SF-36 PCS and SF-36 MCS: physical component summary score and mental component summary score derived from the SF-36 questionnaire.
VariablesSSc patients ( 𝑁 = 8 ) Controls ( 𝑁 = 8 ) P value
Age, years,
range		 5 9 ± 3
43–68		 5 3 ± 3
45–61		.07
Females, % (number)75% (6)88% (7).3
Postmenopausal, % (number)83% (5)86% (6).5
Parity in females (average)2.32.6.3
Pelvic surgeries (average)0.50.1.1
Caucasian % (Number)88% (7)75% (6).3
Mean weight (lbs) 1 5 3 ± 1 1 1 6 0 ± 9 .3
Mean disease duration (yrs) 7 . 6 ± 2 N/A
Medsger Severity index score 5 . 6 ± 1 N/A
Mean GI symptoms 1 7 ± 3 0 . 5 ± 0 . 3 <.01
Daily GI meds %88%0%<.01
SF-36 PCS 3 8 ± 3 5 4 ± 3 .001
SF-36 MCS 4 8 ± 3 5 7 ± 2 .02