Prevalence of Raynaud's phenomenon in general practice in the east of Spain

Our aim was to establish the prevalence of Raynaud's phenomenon in a general practice in the east of Spain and compare our results with those of other studies performed in geographical areas with similar climatic characteristics. Two hundred and seventy-six subjects visiting their general practitioner for whatever reason were randomly selected from a particular area of the city of Valencia. Each was interviewed by their GP following the guidelines of a structured questionnaire to establish whether they had Raynaud's phenomenon or not. There were 205 women and 71 men. The mean age was 54.43, with a standard deviation of 18.22. Raynaud's phenomenon was present in nine subjects, two men and seven women, with a prevalence of 2.8% and 3.4%, respectively. Of the nine positives (mean age 60.56 years, standard deviation 16.38), two were diagnosed with hypertension and two with migraine. None of them usually took Raynaud's phenomenon-related drugs or performed physical exercise. No patient had a family history of Raynaud's phenomenon or had already been diagnosed with it. All the positive males were affected only by the pallor stage. This study shows lower prevalences than those of other studies performed in different geographical areas with similar climatic conditions.