NEED TO EXPAND MICROVASCULAR INVESTIGATION OF PATIENTS WITH RAYNAUDS-PHENOMENON OF DIFFERENT ETIOLOGY - CLINICAL-PATTERNS OF 106 CONSECUTIVE PATIENTS

The differential diagnosis of Raynaud's Phenomenon (RP) is still probl ematic because of the wide variety of underlying etiological possibili ties. Therefore, the diagnostic screening of patients requires easily reproducible, rapid and reliable tests to find those cases of RP secon dary to a connective tissue disorder. The present study of 106 consecu tive RP patients was carried out by using a combination of clinical ex amination, biomicroscopy of fingernail folds and bulbar conjunctiva (w ith scoring of vascular damage), plus the assessment of antinuclear an tibodies on HEP2 cells. On the basis of the reported findings, it can be concluded that patients with RP secondary to collagen disease or so suspected also show abnormalities of the conjunctival microcirculator y bed. Patients with both primary and suspected secondary RP are signi ficantly younger at the time of first diagnosis than patients with col lagen disease-associated RP.