Derived from the Greek words "slerosis" (meaning hardness) and "derma" (meaning skin), scleroderma literally means hard skin. The name is therefore appropriate because one of its major symptoms is tight shiny skin.
Scleroderma, which is often known as systemic sclerosis, is a progressive and chronic connective tissue disorder, and is often classified as a rheumatic disease. Some unknown factor triggers the over-production of collagen (body protein) causing thickening, hardening and scarring of the skin and other organs. Normally collagen keeps the skin soft, but the overproduction makes the affected tissue thick and hard. This, in turn, affects the amount of blood the small vessels carry to many parts of the body.
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