[Understanding Raynaud's phenomenon: towards a better treatment]

Abstract

The Raynaud's phenomenon seems to be well known among the health care workers. It has been identified a long time ago, as Maurice Raynaud described the phenomenon which bears his name in 1862. However its true definition is often forgotten. Moreover the Raynaud's phenomenon is easily confounded with other entities like acrocyanosis... The topic of this review has firstly been chosen in order to precise the criteria of the Raynaud's phenomenon, secondly to mention the new pathogenic aspects recently described and the new therapeutic interventions developed in this field.