Laser Doppler Perfusion Imaging Is Useful in the Study of Raynaud’s Phenomenon and Improves the Capillaroscopic Diagnosis

Abstract

NVC represents the best method to analyze microvascular damage in rheumatic diseases. LDPI improves the evaluation of vascular damage in patients with SSc. The LDPI and the capillaroscopic images fully matched the definition of the various stages of vascular digital damage in SSc.

In systemic sclerosis macrovascular damage of hands digital arteries correlates with microvascular damage

“…The data of this study confirm the results of our previous studies of LDPI and PPG (Rosato et al, 2009(Rosato et al, , 2010b(Rosato et al, , 2011a. The mean value of mean perfusion and of sphygmic wave amplitude was found to be reduced in SSc patients.…”

“…The proximal-distal gradient was present when the perfusion mean difference between ROI1 and ROI2 was N0.3 pU. In each color coded image the homogeneous pattern was defined as a pattern showing structural uniformity of perfusion in ROI2 and ROI3, while a dyshomogeneous pattern was defined as a pattern showing the presence of very small hypoperfused and hyperperfused areas variously distributed in ROI2 and ROI 3 with high SD (Rosato et al, 2009). …”

“…Laser Doppler Perfusion Imaging (LDPI) is not an invasive technique on evaluating skin blood perfusion in patients with primary RP and SSc (Cutolo et al, 2010;Grattagliano et al, 2010;Rosato et al, 2009Rosato et al, , 2010a. Photoplethysmography (PPG) application in RP is restricted to evaluate the response of digital arteries to cold test and drugs.…”

Laser speckle contrast analysis: a new method to evaluate peripheral blood perfusion in systemic sclerosis patients

“…As detected by LASCA for the first time, PBP was found to decrease in SSc patients in correlation with progressive severity of nailfold pattern of microangiopathy, and in agreement with previous results obtained by the laser Doppler analysis 2 15 16. In particular, SSc patients showed the lowest PBP when they were characterised by the worst ‘Late’ NVC pattern of microangiopathy, when compared with the ‘Early’ less severe NVC.…”

Skin Perfusion of Fingers Shows a Negative Correlation with Capillaroscopic Damage in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis

“…In the fingers of patients with SSc, the absence of a correlation between skin perfusion and digital arterial flow is due to microvascular damage (giant capillaries, disorganization of the normal capillary array, avascular areas) and AVA shunts. In SSc, microvascular damage is responsible for the 5 142 LDI and NVC Skin blood perfusion showed a negative correlation with microvascular damage scored according to NVC classification Rosato 6 30 LDI and NVC In SSc patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, bosentan improved skin perfusion, particularly in patients with the early/active capillaroscopic patterns Rosato 7 100 LDI, NVC, and PPG A strong correlation exists between capillaroscopic patterns and digital skin perfusion and pulsatility of digital arteries Murray 8 16 LDI, NFC, and LDI and thermal imaging give equivalent information on dynamic changes in the thermal imaging cutaneous microcirculation. However, a combination of all 3 techniques improves classification Mugii 9 127 NVC Red blood cell velocity was significantly associated with NVC findings.…”