[Clinical considerations in Raynaud's phenomenon. How many and which patients are treated?]

Among the multiple aspects about which little is still known about Raynaud's phenomenon (RP), is that, in the author's opinion, regarding the question: how many and which patients are sufficiently troubled by this pathology to seek medical treatment from their own GP or specialist, and what are the results of any treatment commenced. The following questions were put to a group of 180 patients affected by RP attending the out-patient clinic for the first time: 1) how many had already received treatment; 2) which patients were receiving pharmacological treatment and/or had undergone surgery. In this context, the authors assessed the influence of the following parameters on the fact that they had or had not been treated: a) the age of patients; b) the duration of disease; c) the presence of stenosing or obliterating arterial lesions (RP on an organic basis); d) the co-presence of pathologies considered to be the possible etiological cause of RP in literature; e) the severity of symptoms; 3) what results were obtained by medical and/or surgical treatment; 4) what was the course of RP which failed to respond to therapeutic measures. The study examined a series of 180 subjects including 139 (77.22%) females (mean age 47.6% years) and 41 (22.78) males (mean age 42.4 years). Symptoms had been present for a period ranging between 2 and 44 years (mean 10.01). In order to ascertain the possible presence of associated diseases considered by many authors to be causal factors, all patients underwent hemotochemical and instrumental test.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)