Back in 1965, Dr. Ian Bruce Sneddon reported six patients with a skin rash and strokes.
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Connecting that distinctive rash and investigating deeper, a new condition emerged: the Sneddon syndrome, a rare bust nasty disease.
That disease attacks small and medium blood vessels in a very bad way: the inner lining grows too quickly and that creates blood flow problems which is a very serious situation.
That new disease came to be known as progressive that worsens over time. Since blood cells grow abnormally, blood clots occur, and with them strokes, transient ischemic attacks, skin prolems, and
neurological issues.
A transient ischemic attack is a "small stroke", it starts the same but lasts from several minutes to 24 hours. It is easier than a stroke and it doesn't kill the brain cells, but in that period we can't tell
is it about a stroke or a transient attacks.
Sneddon's syndrome is an often unrecognized, slowly progressive, systemic disease.
Symptoms of Sneddon syndrome are first a foremost the skin rash and strokes.
The rash is painless, it appears in two forms: on legs and arms when it's colder and disappears when it's warmer. It can appear on the trunk and buttocks and it's persistent when it's warm. It looks like a fish net or the snake skin.
There also may be changes in personality, headaches, dizziness, and in rare cases kidney problems. In Sneddon syndrome all those symptoms usually don't appear together at once, so skin problems may appear first and before any neurological problem.
There are cases when Sneddon syndrome appears with some autoimmune conditions, so the patient may have lupus, antiphospholipid syndrome, or Behcet's disease.
Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease which occurs when body's immune system attacks its own tissues and organs. An autoimmune disorder in which the immune system mistakenly produces antibodies and attacks the normal proteins in the blood. Behcet's disease is a rare
inflammatory disease of the blood vessels.
In many cases, Sneddon syndrome causes memory loss and worsening difficulty in speaking and in some cases patients are diagnosed with early dementia.
Sneddon syndrome requires different tests because it causes different symptoms. Blood test looking for clotting issues, a search for autoimmune disease, MRI and CT brain scan, and skin examinations are necessary to establish the disease.
Sneddon syndrome affects 1 in 250,000 people and nearly 80% of patients are women and they’re usually diagnosed around the age of 40, although the disease may appear in ten years old, and it is recorded in 64 years old.
There is no one cure for Sneddon syndrome and different treatments are needed: anticoagulant to help blood flow, vasodilators to increase blood flow, or ACE inhibitors to stop the growth of abnormal cells. ■