Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffLimited scleroderma, or CREST syndrome, is one subtype of scleroderma — a condition that literally means "hardened skin."
The skin changes associated with limited scleroderma typically occur only in the lower arms and legs, and sometimes the face and throat. Limited scleroderma can also affect your digestive tract and can cause serious heart and lung disorders.
For some people, the problems caused by limited scleroderma are minor. For others, limited scleroderma can be life altering and even fatal. The disease has no known cure, and treatments focus on managing symptoms and preventing serious complications.
- Handout on health: Scleroderma. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases. http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Scleroderma/default.asp. Accessed March 18, 2009.
- Steen VD. The many faces of scleroderma. Rheumatic Disease Clinics of North America. 2008;34:1.
- Wigley FM. Scleroderma. In: Goldman L, et al. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/126871837-5/818551240/1492/1032.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2805-5..50293-7--cesec9_13002. Accessed March 19, 2009.
- Raynaud's phenomenon. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Raynauds_Phenomenon/default.asp. Accessed March 18, 2009.
- Interstitial lung disease and pulmonary fibrosis. American Lung Association. http://www.lungusa.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=2060161&content_id={4350F20F-98E4-403B-A33B-68B20A3C2FBA}¬oc=1. Accessed March 19, 2009.
- Pulmonary hypertension. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/pah/pah_what.html. Accessed March 19, 2009.
- Denton CP. Overview of the treatment and prognosis of systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 20, 2009.
