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Nailfold cappilaroscopy is a simple non-invasive method to diag- nose or exclude scleroderma-like connective tissue diseases. This examination should be performed in every patient with Raynaud's phenomenon, since it can diagnose a possible underlying sclero- derma-like disorder, years before clinical or biochemical abnor- malities become evident. Therefore, it is the most appropriate method to differentiate primary from secondary Raynaud's pheno- menon. In the past five years, we have gained experience in this technique as we performed more than 500 examinations in this time period. The sensitivity of a pathological capillaroscopy for the various categories of connective tissue diseases was as follows : systemic sclerosis 100%, CREST syndrome 73%, mixed connective tissue disease 56%, dermatomyositis 86%. The specificity of these findings was 93.3%. The positive predictive value of a pathologi- cal capillaroscopy was 63.5% and the negative predictive 96.7%.
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| Description expertise techniques : |
| Description expertise users : |
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- medical doctors caring for patients with Raynaud's phenomenon or patients otherwise suspected of suffering from a scleroder- ma-like disorder - insurance companies or the Fonds voor Beroepsziekten, to diffe- rentiate Raynaud's phenomenon secondary to exposure to profes- sionally used vibratory tools, from Raynaud's phenomenon secondary to underlying connective tissue disorders.
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Research team to which
BLOCKMANS DANIEL ENGELBERT belongs. Expert number:X3843
Nederlands |
