[Efficacy and tolerability of iloprost in the treatment of digital vasculitis secondary to connective tissue diseases].

The authors have evaluated the effects of long-term treatment of digital vasculitis secondary to various types of connective tissue disease, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Progressive Systemic Sclerosis (PSS), Sjögren's Syndrome (SS), using iloprost. The drug has proven to be effective both in reducing pain and clinical symptoms induced by vasospastic phenomena, as well as in promoting the healing of serious acral ischemic lesions. In the patient with LES, clinical modifications of the local vasculitic phenomena have been associated with a contemporaneous remission of the disease. The persistence of the drug's clinical effects even after suspension of treatment, instrumental and biohumoral changes and concomitant systemic effects on the disease lead to the conclusion that the drug's effect, is not merely due its vasodilating action and its ability to interfere with the coagulative process, but rather must be sought within the context of a morpho-structural repair of the microcirculation.