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OCCUPATIONAL ASPECTS OF RAYNAUD'S DISEASE: A CRITICAL HISTORICAL SURVEY
Author(s) -
Christophers A. J.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1972.tb103510.x
Subject(s) - raynaud's disease , disease , raynaud disease , medicine , occupational disease , dermatology , pathology
The literature is reviewed beginning with the first descriptions of occupational Raynaud's disease in the second decade of this century. At the beginning of the fourth decade, the importance of vibration in the ætiology of the disease started to gain acceptance, and this idea solidified during this decade and the next to the extent that the disease is now called “vibration disease”, or “vibration‐induced white fingers”, instead of “Raynaud's disease”. The writer maintains that vibration was accepted erroneously as an ætiological factor, and that the perpetuation of this error has confounded investigations into the ætiology of the disease ever since. In the appendix, it is pointed out that certain occupational manifestations of Raynaud's disease have been recently described as a new disease named “occupational acro‐osteolysis” and spurious ætiological factors have been postulated for it.