Abstract
Twenty‐four patients with connective tissue diseases and 5 control subjects were studied by “wide‐field” photography. A total of 44 photographs of the nailfold were sent to the second author (HRM) for “blind” diagnostic interpretation. The scleroderma‐dermatomyositis pattern was identified in 17 of 18 photographs of 11 scleroderma patients, and 5 of 5 photographs of 2 dermatomyositis patients. Six of 8 photographs of 5 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were correctly identified, as were 7 of 7 photographs of 5 control subjects. These results demonstrate that characteristic patterns of nailfold capillary abnormalities can be identified and correlated blindly with the clinical diagnosis in several connective tissue diseases.