Maureen D. Mayes
Editor

2014

Although clinical manifestations of scleroderma make it a very “visual” disease, the low prevalence (estimated to be approximately 1 in 4,000 US adults) means that many physicians, rheumatologists included, may fail to recognize the disease particularly in its early stages. In addition, scleroderma varies widely in severity so that the sometimes subtle findings of mild disease may be missed. In addition, there is often confusion between localized scleroderma (morphea) which does not involve internal organs and systemic sclerosis (including limited and diffuse disease) which does. The similar terminology only serves to compound this confusion.