Capillaroscopy is a method for evaluating morphological characteristics of nailfold capillaries. The simplicity, noninvasiveness and easiness-to-perform make the method accessible in everyday rheumatological practice. Raynaud's phenomenon is the main indication for performing capillaroscopy (differentiating between primary and secondary Raynaud's phenomenon) and diagnosing early stages of syste...

BACKGROUND: Nailfold capillaroscopy is a useful technique for evaluating changes in microcirculation. OBJECTIVE: To investigate changes at nailfold capillaroscopy in psoriatic patients compared with controls. METHODS: Nailfold capillaroscopy was performed in 46 psoriatic patients and 50 controls to assess microscopic morphological changes, capillary density and the presence of areas with devasc...

Thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO, or Buerger's disease) is a rare inflammatory vasculitis that commonly involves small and medium-sized arteries of the extremities of tobacco smokers between the ages of 25 and 50 years. Although the diagnosis is based on the clinical picture and angiographic findings, we studied the microvascular involvement by nailfold capillaroscopy. We evaluated by nailfold c...

OBJECTIVES To investigate whether in vivo capillary microscopy of the lower lip mucosa can be used to assess microvascular disease in systemic sclerosis. METHODS Thirteen patients with systemic sclerosis and 11 healthy control subjects were studied by conventional nailfold capillary microscopy and labial capillaroscopy. The following parameters were analysed: loop length; loop width (maximum ...

OBJECTIVE To describe microvascular abnormalities by nailfold capillaroscopy in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) with or without Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) and those with anticentromere antibodies (ACA). METHODS Forty patients with SS (14 without RP, 16 with RP, 10 with ACA), 20 patients with scleroderma (SSc) (10 with limited and 10 with diffuse disease) (disease control group) a...

E-selectin is expressed by the activated endothelium and its plasma levels are increased in patients with systemic sclerosis. Eighteen patients fulfilling the American Rheumatism Association criteria for systemic sclerosis, 15 females and 3 males, 42-70 years old, 9 with diffuse and 9 with limited forms, were sequentially recruited for this study. Serum E-selectin levels were determined by comm...

OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to obtain cross-sectional data on capillaroscopy in an international multi-center cohort of Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) and to investigate the frequency of the capillaroscopic patterns and their disease-phenotype associations. METHODS Data collected between June 2004 and October 2011 in the EULAR Scleroderma Trials and Research (EUSTAR) registry were examine...

OBJECTIVES To describe the frequency, extent, and nature of microvascular lesions in patients with scleroderma by means of capillaroscopy and capillaroscopically guided nail fold biopsy, and to determine the diagnostic value of the two methods and the pathophysiological significance of the lesions described. METHODS A cohort study was made of 24 consecutive patients with scleroderma and 10 he...

Microvascular involvement in systemic inflammatory diseases has been well known more than one hundred years. Abnormal microangiopathy of nailfold often occurs in systemic rheumatic diseases, especially in scleroderma, Raynaud's phenomenon and related conditions.Nailfold capillaroscopy uses a lens that allows analysis of the capillary morphology and microcirculation of nailfold. Recently, the vi...