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What Are the Symptoms?

The symptoms and manifestations of scleroderma vary widely between individuals. The most common symptom is tightening and hardening or thickening of the skin of the arms, legs, hands, feet, and face. The skin continues to thicken during the first two to three years of the disease, after which thickening ceases and may even recede.

Symptoms of scleroderma may include:

• Gradual tightening and thickening of the skin.
• Swelling, stiffness, or pain in the fingers, toes, hands, feet or face.
• Tingling, numbness, or puffiness.
• Skin discoloration.
• Small white bumps under the surface of the skin.
• Cold sensitivity and a bluish or reddish tint in the hands and feet (called Raynaud's Syndrome).
• Telangiectasias (red spots from permanently dilated tiny blood vessels) on the fingers, palms, face, lips or tongue.
• Ulcers or sores on fingertips, knuckles or elbows.
• Brittle bones that may easily break.
• Loss of the skin's ability to stretch.
• Itching.
• Muscle weakness.
• Fatigue.
• Curling of the fingers.
• Digestive problems (heartburn, trouble swallowing or delayed movement of food due to impaired muscle activity in the intestines)
• Loss of hand function because of skin tighte.ning on fingers and hands.
• Shortness of breath, possibly from heart or lung damage.

Five particular symptoms that sometimes occur together have been clinically recognized as a variation of scleroderma called CREST syndrome. The acronym CREST stands for calcinosis (painful calcium deposits in the skin), Raynaud's phenomenon (abnormal blood flow in the hands and feet in response to cold or stress), esophageal dysfunction (problems with swallowing caused by internal scarring), sclerodactyly (tightening of the skin on the fingers or toes), and telangiectasia on the hands, palms, forearms, face, and lips. People with CREST syndrome generally have a relatively mild form of systemic scleroderma.

Call Your Doctor If:

• You notice tightening and thickening of your skin. You have unexplained swelling of the fingers, toes, hands, feet, or face.
• You have tingling, numbness, puffiness, or skin discoloration.
• You have small white bumps under the surface of your skin.
• You develop sensitivity to cold in your hands and feet.
• You develop red spots on your fingers, palms, face, lips, or tongue.
• You get ulcers or sores on your fingertips, knuckles or elbows.