Diagnostic Methods for Microvasculopathy in Systemic Sclerosis

Abstract

A generalized damage to the microcirculation (microvasculopathy) is a cardinal feature of systemic sclerosis and its first manifestation is Raynaud’s phenomenon. Early detection of microvasculopathy enables to establish the right diagnosis at the very early stage of the disease and to identify those patients with the greater risk of internal organ involvement or developmental digital tip ulcers. Dynamic methods help to monitor the response to treatment that influences on the vasomotoric functions of the microcirculation. The gold standard for the assessment of microvascular involvement constitutes nailfold capillaroscopy, which can be performed using stereomicroscopy, videocapillaroscopy, or dermoscopy. Other non-invasive diagnostic methods include sidestream dark field imaging, optical coherence tomography, laser Doppler and laser-related methods, and thermography.