The Capillaroscopy allows the study of the periungual microcirculation,
being a fundamental test for the evaluation of patients with Raynaud’s
phenomenon, useful in the diagnostic process of scleroderma and other rheumatic
diseases. It can be performed with different optical devices, the most used being
the stereomicroscope. In recent years, the digital video-capillaroscope has been
developed, which is the result of incorporating the appropriate hardware and software
for digitizing images into the optical microscope and is used in the field of
research. This paper aims to assess the advantages of video-capillaroscopy compared
to previous techniques, thus defending its incorporation into routine clinical
practice and its application in the field of teaching.
The high quality, and the possibility of computer processing, of the images
obtained by Videocapillaroscopy optimises and facilitates the diagnosis and
follow-up of patients with scleroderma, providing advantages such as the possibility
of automatically counting the capillary density in the periungual bed and
measuring its size.
The ease and immediacy of making them and the availability of images in
computer files facilitates the development of teaching materials such as slide
presentations, videos or learning applications.
