Usefulness of video-capillaroscopy in clinical practice: systematic review of indications and results in rheumatology and in non-rheumatic disorders.

Background: Nailfold video-capillaroscopy (VCP) is nowadays worldwide considered as one of the best diagnostic noninvasive imaging technique able to study microcirculation in vivo.

Aim: To review the applications of VCP in the clinical practice and its results in rheumatic and non-rheumatic diseases.

Methods: Review of literature

Results: The possibility of managing the imaging, by means of dedicated software able to characterize quantitative and qualitative data, represents another relevant property of VCP. This technique is very useful at the identification of microvascular involvement in many rheumatic diseases, particularly in systemic sclerosis and related disorders. At the same time, VCP has been showed valuable in many other extra-rheumatic diseases. The authors review the applications of VCP in the clinical practice and its results in rheumatic and non-rheumatic diseases.