This disease, as a rule, affects women of young age more often: from 20 to 40 years. Perhaps this is due to the greater propensity of the weaker sex to neurological disorders and migraine attacks, which may play an important role in the development of the disease in question.
Disease and Raynaud's syndrome
This disease is a clinical disorder characterized by paroxysmal disturbances in the blood supply (arterial) of the lower limbs - the hands or feet.
The French doctor, whose name was called the syndrome, suggested that the disease is nothing more than a neurosis due to a sharp increase in the excitability of the spinal vasomotor centers.
It should be understood that Raynaud's syndrome develops as a secondary condition against other ailments or triggering factors, while Raynaud's disease is an independent disease.
The Reynaud phenomenon or Raynaud's disease is the cause
One of the main determining factors contributing to the onset of this disease is a genetic predisposition. The propensity to the Raynaud phenomenon is transmitted in almost 90% of cases.
Reasons for Raynaud's Disease:
- diseases of the blood vessels and the cardiovascular system (postthrombotic and thrombotic syndrome, obliterating atherosclerosis);
- diseases of rheumatoid type (lupus erythematosus, Sjogren's disease, nodular periarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis , systemic scleroderma, obliterating thromboangiitis);
- long-term use of certain drugs (serotonin, beta blockers, ergotamine, ergot alkaloids, antitumor drugs);
- blood diseases (thrombocytosis, paroxysmal hemoglobinuria, multiple myeloma, cryoglobulinemia);
- neurogenic diseases (carpal tunnel syndrome, compression of the neurovascular bundle, plethygia, algodystrophy);
- professional factors (vibration, harmful substances in the ambient air);
- mechanical factors (immobilization, hypothermia for a long time).
Raynaud's Disease - Symptoms
If we are talking about the syndrome, and not the disease itself, the symptomatology manifests itself characteristic of the ailment or condition that caused the attack of the phenomenon in question. They can disappear on their own.
But what are the signs of Raynaud's disease:
- At the first stage, angiospastic, short spasms of the fingers (terminal phalanges) appear, they become pale, cold to the touch, numbness is felt.
- The second stage, angioparalytic, is characterized by painful sensations, burning at the fingertips, cyanosis phalang appears, which lasts up to several hours. In addition, liquid-filled vesicles that heal after dissection can form on the skin.
- At the last stage, trophoparalytic, in the terminal phalanges of the fingers, irreversible trophic disorders are observed. On the skin erosive ulcers are formed, leading to necrotization, gangrene. In the absence of treatment, the osteoarticular apparatus of the hands is affected.
Symptoms of Raynaud's disease appear on the arms symmetrically, but can occur in different stages.
Raynaud's Disease - Diagnosis
The main difficulty in diagnosing a disease is to distinguish Raynaud's syndrome from the disease itself. For this, there are a number of defining criteria:
- absence of ailments that provoke a secondary Raynaud's syndrome;
- duration of attacks is at least 2 years;
- symmetry of signs of the disease on both extremities.
The attending physician for the diagnosis examines the limbs, blood vessels of the patient and conducts cold tests to assess the sensitivity of the fingers.