This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Vickie M. Brown, MD
Department of Dermatology Medical College of Georgia Augusta, GA 30912

Arch Dermatol. 1984;120(8):992-993.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

In the July 1983 ARCHIVES, Tuffanelli et al¹ made the potentially erroneous statement that the CREST (calcinosis, Raynaud's phenomenon, esophageal involvement, sclerodactyly, and telangiectasia) syndrome is a "benign, chronic" form of scleroderma.

In the past, the CREST syndrome variant has been thought to represent a more benign form of scleroderma, generally without life-threatening visceral involvement.^2,3 However, numerous reports in the literature have suggested that the CREST syndrome is not benign. During a 15-year period, Rowell⁴ followed up 84 patients with scleroderma, 12 of whom had CREST syndrome. The patients with CREST syndrome were found to have the same degree of systemic involvement and the same prognosis as did the other patients with scleroderma.

The CREST syndrome has been associated with pulmonary hypertension resulting from progressive pulmonary vascular obliteration that can, in the absence of substantial pulmonary fibrosis, lead to death.⁵ Ungerer et al . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?