Very Early Diagnosis of Systemic Sclerosis: Deciphering the heterogeneity of systemic sclerosis in the very early stages of the disease.

The early diagnosis of systemic sclerosis has been a major challenge for the scleroderma community in the past 50 years. The recent publication of the predictive value of the VEDOSS (Very Early Diagnosis of Systemic Sclerosis) criteria in the Lancet Rheumatology in December 2021 has provided an unprecedented insight in the early stages of the disease. This editorial discusses the main findings from this 2021 VEDOSS publication and highlights key unanswered questions to be proposed on the research agenda in very early systemic sclerosis.