Regular exercise and physical therapy may keep joints flexible. Eating several smaller meals instead of three large ones, as well as not eating right before bed, can also help with heartburn. People with digestive problems might change their diet to prevent heartburn. Protect fingers and toes from activities that could injure skin. Patients with Raynaud’s phenomenon should keep their bodies, hands, and feet warm with layered clothing, boots, and gloves in cold weather. Other treatments for a serious lung complication (pulmonary arterial hypertension) can relax constricted blood vessels to ease high blood pressure. Mycophenolate is also used to treat patients who develop scarring or inflammation of the lungs (known as interstitial lung disease). There are no approved medications for skin thickening, but methotrexate (Rheumatrex) and mycophenolate mofetil (Cellcept) can be used early in the disease depending on the presence of other symptoms such as joint, muscle, or lung disease. Antacids and proton pump inhibitors (omeprazole) can help with heartburn. What Are Common Treatments?įor Raynaud’s, blood pressure medications called calcium channel blockers or PDE-5 inhibitors like sildenafil (Viagra) and tadalafil (Cialis), can improve circulation. Diagnosis is based on history and physical exam findings, blood tests, autoantibodies seen in scleroderma, and imaging of heart or lungs. In addition to Raynaud’s phenomenon, patients can have other symptoms depending on the involvement of joints, muscles, and internal organs including the heart, lungs, blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract, and kidneys. Fingers or toes may look red, white, or blue, especially in cold temperatures and may be swollen, numb, painful or develop ulcers. An early, common sign of scleroderma is color changes to the fingers called Raynaud’s phenomenon. Scleroderma symptoms may range from minor to life-threatening. While there is no cure for scleroderma, there are treatments to help manage symptoms and improve quality of life. Children may get a juvenile form of scleroderma. It affects mostly women between the ages of 30 and 50. It often leads to skin tightening and thickening, and sometimes can affect joints, muscles, heart, lungs, kidneys, blood vessels or intestines. Scleroderma results from the immune system causing inflammation and tissues changes. Scleroderma is a rare, chronic autoimmune disease that affects skin and internal organs.
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