nucleolar pattern???

[sha198]

I have a positive ana 1:320 nucleolar pattern...I have been experiencing joing pain in my knees bottom of feet elbows and shouldsers and i have very bad tendonitis in the palms of my hands and what i think is carpal tunnel and I have seen 4 rheumatologists who just shrug this off as normal????? I also have two ganglion cysts on both thunmbs and to hard bony things on both pinky fingers...everything I read about nucleolar points to scleroderma...also I have a couple of fingers that feel numb...please help i need some advice..I have another dr. appt tomorrow and I need some advice I feel like my family thinks I am crazy for going from dr. to dr. but I know something is wrong.

[sha198]

Well I have literally seen about 10 rheumatologists and they all are sure this is not scleroderma, they all say I do not have the symptoms...I am so confusted....my ESR and RA are all normal! any other advice...UPMC is running bloodwork again just to ease my mind and they also did a chest xray haven't heard the results yet. Where do I stop and just believe someone?

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi!

Well, if you have so many problems then you are not wrong in seeking medical advice. Yes, nucleolar pattern is seen in scleroderma and in CREST Syndrome which is a type of systemic scleroderma. The other possibility is systemic sclerosis, again quite related to scleroderma. The ESR will be high and RA factor may be positive.

Do discuss this with your doctor. Take care!