Raynaud's

Okay. From your answers, you have Raynaud's, heartburn and one or more skin symptoms that can be seen with scleroderma or CREST syndrome. This combination makes it important to see your doctor for evaluation, so that a diagnosis can be established and treatment, if needed, can be started.

If you have additional symptoms, other diagnoses should be considered.

For example, prominent dryness of the eyes and mouth would raise the possibility of Sjogren's syndrome; joint pain, rash and painful breathing would make lupus more likely.

This combination also raises the possibility of an "overlap syndrome." For example, some people have a disease that combines features of Sjogren's syndrome, lupus, and scleroderma.

Finally, your symptoms could be coincidental. Each of these symptoms (especially heartburn and Raynaud's) is rather common in the population and might be unrelated.

Because you have several features of rheumatic disease (Raynaud's, heartburn and some skin symptoms), it is important to see a physician to have these symptoms evaluated further.

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