Need to expand microvascular investigation of patients with Raynaud's phenomenon of different etiology: clinical patterns of 106 consecutive patients.

The differential diagnosis of Raynaud's Phenomenon (RP) is still problematic because of the wide variety of underlying etiological possibilities. Therefore, the diagnostic screening of patients requires easily reproducible, rapid and reliable tests to find those cases of RP secondary to a connective tissue disorder. The present study of 106 consecutive RP patients was carried out by using a combination of clinical examination, biomicroscopy of fingernail folds and bulbar conjunctiva (with scoring of vascular damage), plus the assessment of antinuclear antibodies 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 microcirculatory bed. Patients with both primary and suspected secondary RP are significantly younger at the time of first diagnosis than patients with collagen disease-associated RP.