Objectives Associations between Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP) and body mass index (BMI), fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and migraine have been reported but their influence on the lived experience of RP is unknown. Design Cross-sectional electronic survey. Setting A social media-based awareness campaign organised by Scleroderma & Raynaud’s UK. Participants 4141 respondents with RP, including 3279 with primary RP (PRP), 476 with systemic sclerosis-related RP (SSc-RP) and 386 with other systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease-related RP (SARD-RP). Interventions Not applicable. Main outcome measures RP symptom characteristics (colour change patterns, pain, numbness, tingling and thumb involvement) and their associations with BMI, FMS and migraine. Results In PRP, low BMI correlated with higher prevalence of cyanosis (55.1% vs 41.2%), hyperaemia (48.2% vs 41.3%), triphasic change (30.4% vs 23.0%) and thumb involvement (36.0% vs 27.0%) compared with high BMI. In PRP, concomitant FMS was associated with higher prevalence of pain (77.7% vs 57.4%), cyanosis (53.8% vs 45.4%), tingling (72.6% vs 62.8%) and thumb involvement (46.2% vs 27.2%) compared with those without FMS. Higher prevalence of pain was reported by FMS respondents with SSc-RP (82.8% vs 69.9%) and SARD-RP (84.1% and 70.9%, respectively). In PRP, migraine was associated with higher prevalence of cyanosis (50.0% vs 44.9%), hyperaemia (50.3% vs 43.7%), pain (69.0% vs 56.2%) and thumb involvement (33.4% vs 27.1%). Migraine was associated with higher prevalence of hyperaemia and pain in SARD-RP. Conclusion BMI, FMS and migraine influence the lived experience of RP, particularly in PRP. FMS is associated with a greater pain burden, whereas low BMI and migraine are associated with prominent vasospastic features. These aetiopathogenic drivers influence RP symptomatology, with implications for management.
Seomore et al. (Fri,) studied this question.