Generalized Scleroderma

Myocardial involvement in generalized scleroderma.

Generalized scleroderma is no longer considered strictly a dermatosis, but rather a disease of the connective tissue of various organs and systems. The pathological changes characterizing scleroderma have been thoroughly described and reviewed by Beerman.4 Of recent years, numerous investigators”34’679’2’4’16’7’922 have emphasized the frequency of myocardial and pericardial involvement in gener...

Progressive generalized scleroderma: respiratory failure from primary chest wall involvement.

A 73-year-old woman presented with an eight-month history of swelling of the right leg. The calf and ankle were found normal, but there was non-pitting swelling of the thigh of "woody" consistency. Both flanks were firm with cutaneous thickening. There were no other abnormal physical findings. A cutaneous biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of scleroderma. The chest radiograph was normal and initial...

Scleroderma with Nodular Scleroderma

BACKGROUND Nodular scleroderma is a rare variant of scleroderma which can occur in connection with systemic sclerosis or morphea. A biopsy from the lesion can demonstrate the scleroderma pattern, i.e., keloid pattern or mixed type. Treatment is challenging, and several treatments modalities have been reported with unsatisfactory results. MAIN OBSERVATIONS We present a case of systemic scleros...

When is scleroderma really scleroderma?

Scleroderma.

The prototypic autoimmune diseases involving skin (lupus, dermatomyositis) typically result in epithelial injury and autoantibodies to characteristic cellular antigens. Disease-specific autoantibodies are also found in scleroderma, but scleroderma is different from other cutaneous autoimmune diseases because epithelial injury does not occur. Multiple factors and combinations of factors (immune ...