Eosinophilic fasciitis: an early variant of scleroderma.

Eosinophilic fasciitis, originally reported as a syndrome distinct from scleroderma, appears now to be an early inflammatory variant of scleroderma. No less than one half of the cases reported as eosinophilic fasciitis have convincing features of scleroderma, including Raynaud's phenomenon, esophageal dysmotility, restrictive lung disease, diffuse hyperpigmentation, synovitis, flexion contractures, dermal sclerosis, colonic diverticula, scleroderma kidney, positive latex fixation test, and the presence of serum antinuclear antibodies (ANA). Clinical presentations of scleroderma range from isolated acrosclerosis to rapidly progressive systemic sclerosis. As clinical experience and long-term follow-up data on eosinophilic fasciitis accumulate, it appears that the syndrome may well represent another variant in the scleroderma spectrum. Reported here is a case which presented clinically and histologically as eosinophilic fasciitis, but which progressed over 3 years to diffuse, histologically confirmed scleroderma.