A retrospective study of antibodies against basement membrane antigens (type IV collagen and laminin) in patients with primary and secondary Raynaud's phenomenon.

Antibodies against type IV collagen were detected in the sera of 21% of patients with primary Raynaud's phenomenon (PRP) and 68% of patients with systemic sclerosis. Sera from 25% of the PRP patients and 48% of systemic sclerosis patients displayed antibodies to laminin. Eighty percent of the patients with PRP and antibodies to basement membrane antigens developed additional serologic or clinical manifestations, whereas only 16% of patients with PRP and no anti-basement membrane antibodies developed such manifestations.