The visceral manifestations of scleroderma

Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, scleroderma was considered solely a cutaneous disease. The recognition that proliferation of connective tissue in the viscera was analogous to the skin lesions prompted the name, “progressive systemic sclerosis.” Recent evidence indicates that Raynauds phenomenon, which is frequently associated with scleroderma, is also expressed in the viscera as vasconstriction, particularly in renal and pulmonary arterioles.