Dermoscopy findings of nail fold capillaries in connective tissue diseases

Nail fold (video) capillaroscopy is a well-established technique to assess patients with Raynaud's phenomenon, in whom specific abnormalities of capillaries are predictive of underlying systemic sclerosis and its related diseases (scleroderma spectrum disorder). The typical abnormalities are also found in patients with dermatomyositis and those findings are useful for the assessment of vascular injury and the evaluation of therapeutic effect in patients with scleroderma spectrum disorder and dermatomyositis. Recently, it has been suggested that dermoscopy can replace the capillaroscopy in significant part for detection of nail fold capillary abnormalities. In this review, I summarized the established capillaroscopy findings in connective tissues diseases and tried to apply the findings of dermoscopy to the findings and classification of capillaroscopy.