Pathophysiology of Capillary Circulation: Raynaud's Disease

Abstract

Despite the frequency of Raynaud's disease in cold climates, the etiology of the condition remains uncertain. This report reviews the literature since Raynaud's original description and Lewis and Pickering's addition to the concept, and several recent observations which add to our understanding of the disease are discussed. We investigated the effect of posture and a vasodilator drug on the digital capillary circulation; digital blood flow increases as the body moves from a recumbent, through a sitting, to an upright position. Bradilan, a vasodilator drug, increases the circulation in the recumbent and sitting positions, but has no effect in standing patients, despite symptomatic relief.