The fascia in systemic scleroderma.

Diffuse fasciitis (DF) shares clinical and pathologic features with systemic (SS) and localized scleroderma. The distinct pathologic feature in DF is involvement of the deep fascia, but it is not known if these changes consistently occur in SS. In this study, ten patients with SS underwent deep biopsies for evaluation of the fascia. All cases showed typical dermal histologic findings of scleroderma, and five cases showed thickening and fibrosis of the fascia. This study provides evidence that fascial involvement is not distinctive of DF but may occur in SS. It appears that thickening of the fascia is another morphologic feature shared between DF and SS.