Diagnosis and Treatment of Scleredema

Scleredema is a skin disease, in which the person suffers from skin hardening and thickening. Occasionally a person may also experience redness of the skin. At this point of time, science does not know the exact reason for scleredema, although many researches are being conducted to isolate the exact cause of this disease. Its commonly observed in people with diabetes, especially in men.

Scleredema may be observed after a person gets ill with viral infection, or streptococcal throat infection. Usually twice the amount of women suffer from scleredema, when ill with streptococcal throat infection or viral illness, as compared to men. Even though this disease is sometimes referred to scleredema adultorum, it occurs in people of all age groups and backgrounds.

In scleredema, the affected area of skin becomes hardened and thickened. The color of the skin becomes red or may even look like the skin of an orange. Face, neck, upper back, are some parts of the body where scleredema begins. It may also spread to the chest or arms, but wont affect a person's hands or feet.

Symptoms:
Patients suffering from Scleredema on the face, will find it difficult to open their eyes or mouth. People suffering from this disease on the skin above the joints, will find it difficult to move the related body parts. Similar is the case of people suffering from Scleredema on the tongue. In additions to the above mentioned body parts, scleredema also occurs on body parts such as liver, spleen, heart, throat, and various muscles of the body.

Diagnosis:
In order to diagnose this disease, a medical expert will have to check up the medical history of a patient in order to find traces of diabetes in the body. A skin sample from the affected part may also be taken for examination. A blood test of a special kind is conducted to test the blood for diseases such as multiple myeloma, which may be observed after scleredema begins.

Treatment:
Several types of medications have been tested on individuals, depending upon their condition, but there is no single medicine that works for all, or is proven to be the best. Patients may benefit from corticosteroids, methotrexate, cyclosporine, UVA1 phototherapy, and even psoralen with ultraviolet light A. Antibiotic medicines may also be required. If diabetes is found to be a cause, then it should be controlled with the help of exercise, medication and diet. Simple physical therapy may help improve the movement of restricted body parts.

People who suffer from scleredema after a particular infection are observed to have a shorter course of this disease, which resolves over a period of 6 months to 2 years. However, scleredema patients with diabetes may take a longer time to recover.