Vaskulárna medicína 2/2017

The significance of capillaroscopy in the diagnostics and differential diagnostics of the Raynaud´s syndrome

Raynaud´s syndrome is the best known and most frequently occuring vasoneurosis. It refers to the vasospastic ischaemic attacks of the fingers (or other parts of the body) that are induced by cold or emotional stress. It is benign functional disease (primary RS) generally with unknown cause though it may be associated with the other serious diseases (secondary RS) in some cases. The distinction between them is crucial because the secondary RS can lead to the acral defects or gangrene of the fingers in clinical practice. Capillaroscopy is noninvasive and reliable method that is very helpful in the differential diagnostics of RS. Capillaroscopy is normal in primary RS (capillaries are thin, symmetrically distributed across the nailbed) and abnormal in secondary RS (disarangement of the capillaries, pathologically morphometrically changed capillaries, haemorrhagies and avascular areas are detected).

Keywords: Raynaud´s syndrome, capillary, capillaroscopy, systemic sclerosis