Colonic telangiectasias in a patient with progressive systemic sclerosis

✍ Scribed by Murray Baron; Herbert Srolovitz

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 479 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780290217

✦ Synopsis

Although telangiectasias are most commonly found in the skin of progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS) patients, they have also been noted in the gastrointestinal tract (1-7). To our knowledge, telangiectasias in the colon have been described in only 2 PSS patients (5,6). We describe a patient with PSS in whom multiple colonic telangiectasias were detected by colonoscopy and were later confirmed at autopsy.

Case report. The patient, a 67-year-old woman with scleroderma, was admitted to the hospital in March 1984, with congestive heart failure. She had a 30-year history of Raynaud's phenomenon, with progressive skin tightening, muscle weakness, and heartburn occurring over the last 15 years. In 1974, pseudoobstruction caused by scleroderma bowel disease was diagnosed. In 1976, her D-xylose absorption and serum carotene levels were below normal. No specific treatment for malabsorption was given. In 1981, a severe iron deficiency anemia was found. Occult blood was present in a stool sample. Endoscopy of the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum failed to reveal a possiible source of the blood loss. She was discharged from the hospital on a regimen of oral iron replacement.

In March 1983, her hemoglobin (Hgb) level

From the Division of Rheumatology and the