“Autoimmune”

Have your primary care doctor call and discuss with the rheumatologist and see if they can see you sooner. Most Rheumatologist are willing to get in patients sooner if their physicians call with nice case summary.

Raynaud's phenomenon can occur in patients with or without autoimmune dieases. Wait until your appointment with the rheumatologist who will determine if you have an underlying connective tissue diease or not. A blood test is not enough to make that diagnosis. For treatment and symptom relief I recommend conservative measures such as avoiding extremes in temperature. ( Avoid Abrupt change in temperature. ) If it iscold outside, wear gloves before you step out. Wear shoes with socks if toes are affected. Avoid stimulants such as caffeine which can worsen raynaud's phenomenon. Other then that, your doctor will assess you to determine if you need medication.

I am going to answer question really addressing how we evaluate a patient with Raynaud's Raynaud's can be primary, where a patient starts to have signs and symptoms of Raynaud's at a relatively young age We will say primary when we see no signs or symptoms of any other condition Secondary Raynaud's is a condition linked to an underlying autoimmune or immunologic condition The most common condition associated with secondary Raynaud's is scleroderma and there are different forms of scleroderma, the most common form being what we call limited scleroderma and the other form being called diffuse scleroderma Additionally, we can see Raynaud's in patients with lupus or a condition we call mixed connective tissue disease or an overlap condition, really meeting that we see signs and symptoms of more than 1 condition but we can not diagnose the patient as lupus or scleroderma or Sjogren's Finally, patients with an inflammatory muscle condition called dermatomyositis can also have Raynaud's From a clinical standpoint, if I do not see any signs or symptoms of Raynaud's that is very reassuring Typically, when we do laboratory tests to evaluate the most important test is the antinuclear antibody The ANA test is a test that can be performed by different methods and there are more specific methods that can be used Nonetheless, when there is an apparent abnormality in the ANA screening test, we do more specific autoantibodies to better define the ANA Those antibodies are typically anti DNA, anti SSA SSB, anti-SM/RNP The ANA test will often return with a titer, example 1 to 160, and with a pattern, example homogeneous or speckled When the ANA pattern is centromere, that indicates that there is a centromere antibody in the patient's system and that antibody is most typically seen in patients with limited scleroderma An antibody called anti Scl 70 can be detected in patients with diffuse scleroderma So, from what I think I understand in your situation, the additional testing and the interpretation of that will be very important I wish you well and thank you for your question