Medical pearl: Scleroderma-like skin changes in patients with diabetes mellitus.

S cleroderma-like skin change in diabetes is a common clinical entity that has been reported in the dermatology literature as part of the diabetic hand syndrome.1-3 The purpose of this article is to highlight this condition, which is distinct from scleredema diabeticorum and scleroderma, and is not well known to dermatologists. The incidence ranges between 10% and 50%.4,5 It was initially described in 1974 by Rosenbloom and Frias6 in adolescent patients who were insulin dependent. Scleroderma-like skin change was later found to affect adult patients who were non–insulin dependent.7 Skin and joint findings are coexistent in the majority of cases, although they may coexist independently.4,8 Males and females appear to be equally affected by this disorder and no racial differences have been described thus far.