State of the art on nailfold capillaroscopy in dermatomyositis and polymyositis.

OBJECTIVES

To provide an overview of the main nailfold capillaroscopy (NFC) changes described in dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) and to discuss the current evidence supporting its clinical relevance and applications in daily practice.

METHODS

All relevant literature in the field of NFC and DM and PM published in the last 30 years has been systematically reviewed. A systematic research was performed in the electronic databases PubMed and EMBASE.

RESULTS

A total of 540 publications were identified according to the proposed filters and 27 were included for the review. The articles have been critically analyzed with a focus on technical aspects, examined anatomical areas, main pathological capillaroscopy findings ,and the relationship between NFC alterations and critical parameters of DM and PM.

CONCLUSIONS

The overview confirms that NFC is a safe and noninvasive tool able to help the clinician in the diagnosis of DM and PM and to better characterize the phase of disease activity of these patients.