Dermal fibrosis in spinal cord injury patients

✍ Scribed by Samuel L. Stover; Renate E. Gay; William Koopman; Vinod Sahgal; Leslie L. Gale

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 592 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780231115

✦ Synopsis

The autonomic nervous system has frequently been suspected of contributing to the pathogenesis of certain collagen diseases, but the evidence has been inconclusive (1-4). The development of brawny induration of the skin in some patients with spinal cord injuries above T6 and histories of autonomic hyperreflexia led to a preliminary investigation of 5 patients. Results of skin pathology and dermal collagen typing studies in these index cases are reported and indicate that spinal cord injury with autonomic hyperreflexia may be associated with dermal fibrosis suggestive of a scleroderma variant disorder.

CASE REPORT

KH is a 22-year-old man who was injured in a falling accident which caused a fracture dislocation of C5-C6 vertebrae and a neurologically complete C4 spinal cord injury. Positive physical findings at the time of injury were limited to C4 quadriplegia and a grade I1 harsh systolic murmur over the left second interspace.

As mobilization was initiated, orthostatic hypotension

From the