Raynaud’s disease is a disorder of the blood vessels. It can be either the primary or secondary type. The treatments include lifestyle changes, medication to keep the blood vessels open and, rarely, surgery.
Raynaud's disease is a rare disorder of the blood vessels that usually involves the fingers or toes. It causes the blood vessels to narrow when people feel cold or stressed. When this happens, the affected areas will be undersupplied with blood and will therefore turn white and blue. When the blood starts to flow normally again, people may feel a tingling and numbness.
The cause of Raynaud’s disease is a failure in regulation of the blood flow by the vegetative nervous system. It occurs five times more frequently in women than in men. Raynaud’s disease can be classified into two types: 1) Primary Raynaud’s disease: the cause is not well known. It is more common than secondary Raynaud’s disease and it is not as severe as the secondary type. 2) Secondary Raynaud’s disease: it can be caused by other diseases (such as sclerodermia and lupus erythematodes), conditions or factors, which can affect the normal function of the blood vessels (such as traumas, high physical stress, betablocker). Common conditions such as stress or cold temperatures may result in an episode of Raynaud’s disease. When Raynaud’s disease occurs, it narrows the blood vessels and prevents the blood from flowing into the vessels and, as a result, the skin will become firstly white and secondly blue for a while. Then when the blood starts to flow again, the affected area will become red and warm again. There may be a tingling sensation in the affected area, as well as itchiness or numbness.
Raynaud’s disease is mainly harmless and does not need specific treatment. However, an underlying disease should be excluded. The symptomatic treatment of Raynaud’s disease includes: 1) Lifestyle changes: it is recommended to avoid emotional stress or exposure to extremely cold temperature. 2) Medications: it is often used to improve the blood flow to the affected parts, for example, calcium channel blockers, alpha blockers and ACE inhibitors are often used. 3) Surgery: in severe cases surgery can be helpful. The aim of surgery is to disconnect the sympathetic nerve fibers from the blood vessels in order to get rid of their constrictive effect on the arteries.
Several years of work in academia, medical practice and finally commercialization make it possible to provide an end-to-end process to help users to “find the appropriate medical help based on their present symptoms”. Below you will find a short explanation, showing you which part of the platform will help you best in finding the appropriate medical support.
Proceed as follows to enter your current symptoms.
Click on the appropriate body part on the picture. Select one/multiple symptoms corresponding to your complaint.
You can also add symptoms by typing your medical complaint in the search box and selecting the best matching suggestion.
Note: Your information will be kept anonymously.
Once you have selected all applicable symptoms, click the “analyze disease pattern”-button.
Accordingly, you will get a list of possible diseases and matching doctor categories who can further help you.
You can inform yourself about the possible diseases by reading the related information. But you can also return to the previous step and add more symptoms or delete already added ones to further narrow down your disease pattern.
Click on the desired doctor category to find a doctor who can help you.
If you are logged in with your profile, you will be displayed the appropriate doctors in your area. Otherwise you can enter an address in the “address” field and you will be displayed a doctor’s list around that specified address.
You will receive further information about the displayed doctors when you press on “details”.
Online bookable doctors in your area will be indicated with the notation “Book appointment” or “Book externally”, additionally they will be displayed on top of the list for your convenience.
Click on “Book appointment” to start the online appointment booking process with the desired doctor.
Please select an available appointment. “Green“ appointments are booked directly. “Red“ appointments need to be confirmed by the doctor.
Enter your general personal and health information.
Enter your present medical symptoms.
Enter your mobile phone number to identify yourself and you can finalize the appointment booking.
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