Science fiction movies
A protagonist with superpowers is using a skill
Often the fingers change color
Then a huge gush of energy gushed out
56-year-old Aunt Huang (pseudonym)
From 9 years ago
It's like having some kind of superpower
As long as the weather is cold
Or an emotional agitation
The fingers of her hands would turn white
With warmth or emotional stabilization after
Finger color gradually returns to normal
As you get older
Aunt Huang's "special function" of changing the color of her fingers
Upgraded
Fingers change from white to purple
And I didn't take a few steps to feel tight and angry
So she went to the hospital
Only to learn that behind the "special function" is actually
A rheumatic disease is at work
As soon as the cold fingers turn white
Thought it was freezing
Aunt Huang, a native of Jiaxing, runs a local breakfast restaurant in Jiaxing, and from about the age of 47, Aunt Huang found that as soon as it came to winter, her fingers would change color, starting with the index finger of her left hand, and turning white from the joints to the fingertips. "The faucet in the shop is going to get hot fast." Aunt Huang thought that washing dishes with cold water in winter caused her fingers to be too cold and white, and indeed the whitened fingers gradually returned to normal after touching the hot water, so Aunt Huang did not take it seriously.
Over the years, Aunt Huang has gradually developed from one finger of her left hand to two fingers white, and she has always felt that her hand is soaked in water due to long-term dishwashing. Until the recent cooling, Aunt Huang's finger discoloration situation has become more and more serious, as long as the hand feels cold, the fingers will turn purple and the joints will be accompanied by pain and swelling sensations, and when the emotion is excited, there will also be finger discoloration, and what makes her care more is that the 10-square-meter breakfast shop back and forth to a plate feels tight and anxious, so she herself came to Hangzhou from Jiaxing and walked into the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine.
The situation is not simple
It is this disease that is at work
"It should be Raynaud's syndrome." In the rheumatology and immunology clinic of the First Hospital of Zhejiang University, Dr. Xu Bei carefully examined Aunt Huang's hands and learned that Aunt Huang also had symptoms of chest tightness and shortness of breath.
"Interstitial pneumonia, pulmonary hypertension." According to the results of the examination, Aunt Huang's chest tightness and shortness of breath turned out to be a cardiopulmonary problem, and the root cause of the cardiopulmonary problem and the "specific function" of her fingers were traced back to the same disease - connective tissue disease.
What is connective tissue disease? We have four major tissues: epithelial tissue, connective tissue, muscle tissue, and neural tissue. This disease refers to the disease of connective tissue involvement, which is a large class of diseases related to autoimmune dysfunction and can cause multi-organ and multi-system damage.
Connective tissue diseases mainly include systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren syndrome, idiopathic inflammatory myopathy, systemic sclerosis, systemic vasculitis and other diseases, and common clinical manifestations are complex and diverse, such as finger swelling, joint pain, Raynaud's syndrome, muscle soreness, etc. And with further examination, Aunt Huang was diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome, which triggered Raynaud's syndrome.
Raynaud's syndrome refers to the paroxysmal spasm of the arteriole at the end of the finger (toe) under the stimulation of cold or mental tension, resulting in ischemia at the end of the finger (toe), resulting in pallor, cyanosis, and flushing of the extremities, accompanied by tingling and numbness.
"The condition of your finger is considered to be secondary Raynaud's syndrome." Dr. Xu Bei explained that Raynaud's syndrome is divided into primary and secondary, the cause of primary Raynaud's syndrome is not clear, and treatment only needs to be prescribed to the symptoms; but secondary Raynaud's syndrome may be caused by connective tissue diseases such as Sjögren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. In addition to the treatment of Raynaud's syndrome, the primary disease needs to be treated.
"Because in the past 9 years, Aunt Huang has not paid attention to the first symptom of Sjogren's syndrome such as dry mouth- Raynaud's syndrome, which has affected the heart and lung organs." Dr. Xu Bei said that Sjögren's syndrome is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that mainly affects exocrine glands, which leads to the production of multiple autoantibodies in the serum, and these antibodies will "attack" the human body, and in severe cases, affect multiple organs.
At present, Aunt Huang is undergoing medication for the symptoms.
Very easy to overlook
In severe cases, amputations can even endanger lives
"If she had come a little later, her fingers might not have been safe, or even her life would have been saved." Lin Jin, chief physician of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of the First Hospital of Zhejiang University, said, "Because the initial manifestations of this disease are mainly the symptoms of whitish purple and tingling at the end of the fingers due to ischemia, it is not serious, plus the cold weather is easy to 'cold limbs', so it is easy to be ignored, but if there is long-term ischemia, it will make the limbs form ulcers, the finger pads disappear, the scabs form or calcify, and eventually change from white to purple, and finally become black, at this time the limbs have been ischemic necrosis, and it must be amputated." ”
(Patients with Raynaud's syndrome will have finger ulcers, gangrene, and more severe cases face the risk of finger amputation)
"And this patient has been affected by the heart and lungs, if there is chest tightness and shortness of breath and do not seek medical treatment in time, it may be life-threatening." Director Lin Jin introduced that except for a few Raynaud's syndromes that are primary, most of them are caused by other rheumatic immune diseases, and often belong to the first symptoms of these diseases. If you can seek medical treatment in time when Raynaud's syndrome occurs, you can often screen and detect these primary diseases as early as possible, and intervene early to achieve better treatment results.
Unfortunately, many patients think that it is only because of the cold weather when Raynaud's syndrome appears, and after months or even years, common symptoms of rheumatism such as joint pain, myalgia muscle weakness, skin hardening, etc., and even heart and lung involvement, before going to the hospital, which affects the treatment effect and may even endanger life.
Expert outpatient table of the First Hospital of Zhejiang University
This article is the original of the First Hospital of Zhejiang University
The source network of the illustrations