VEGFA and systemic sclerosis: In contrast, patients with systemic sclerosis demonstrated significantly lower VEGF and sVEGFR-2 concentrations in tears, compared to controls (both p < 0.001) (Table 3, Figure 3, box-and-whiskers plot of VEGF (a) and sVEGFR-2 (b) in patients with scleroderma and control).