How Can Follow-Up of Patients with Raynaud Phenomenon be Optimized?
Murat Kadan, Gökhan Erol, Kubilay Karabacak, Erkan Kaya, Gökhan Arslan, Suat Doğancı, Ufuk Demirkılıç
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Gulhane Military Medical Academy, Ankara, Turkey
Med Sci Monit Basic Res 2015; 21:47-52
DOI: 10.12659/MSMBR.893998
Available online:
Published: 2015-04-02
BACKGROUND:
Raynaud phenomenon (RP) is common worldwide and presents diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties. We aimed to share our experience with optimizing of patient follow-up by using the cold-stimulation test (CST).
MATERIAL AND METHODS:
Data of 81 patients admitted with RP symptomatology were collected. Demographic data and symptoms were recorded. A scale was used for determining the severity of disease at pre-treatment and post-treatment. CST was performed to all patients at pre-treatment and post-treatment for assessment of treatment efficiency in follow-up. Results were analyzed with the SPSS for Mac 20.0 program.
RESULTS:
All the patients were male. Mean age was 22.3±2.14 (19–29). Mean duration of symptoms from onset to present was 4.59±2.85 years. There were statistically significant differences between pre-treatment and post-treatment hand temperatures measured by CST (p<0.001). However, there were no statistically significant differences between pre-treatment and post-treatment severity scores of patients (p=0.135).
CONCLUSIONS:
To quantitatively determine the treatment efficacy, CST may be used instead of asking simple questions of patients.
Keywords: Cold Temperature, Adult, Follow-Up Studies, Physical Stimulation - methods, Raynaud Disease - therapy, Rewarming - methods, Statistics, Nonparametric, Time Factors
