[Morphological characteristics of sclerodermic angiopathy]

Capillaroscopic study of the nail bed of patients with scleroderma systematica (SS) detects avascular regions and neoangiogenesis signs, but the data on the morphological substrate of these changes are lacking. Positive correlation is established between the degree of inflammation and fibroblast number in the skin biopsies on the one hand and expression of the avascular foci, their total surface and sclerodermic processes activity, on the other. Vascular lesions in SS manifested with sclerodermic vasculopathy which in some patients is comorbid with vasculitis of microcirculatory vessels. A wide spectrum of morphological vascular lesions reflects clinical heterogeneity of SS. Vascular lesions is an obligatory component, are manifest at early stages of SS and their transformation reflects the disease evolution.