| any of a group of diseases, as systemic lupus erythematosus, polyarteritis, scleroderma, and rheumatoid arthritis, involving inflammation or degeneration of connective tissue and accompanied by deposition of fibrinous material. |
collagen disease or collagen-vascular disease
n.
Any of a group of diseases affecting connective tissue and often characterized by fibrinoid necrosis or vasculitis and including such diseases as lupus erythematosus, progressive systemic sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatic fever, polyarteritis nodosa, and dermatomyositis. Also called collagenosis.
connective tissue disease
any of the diseases that affect human connective tissue. Diseases of the connective tissue can be divided into (1) a group of relatively uncommon genetic disorders that affect the primary structure of connective tissue and (2) a number of acquired maladies in which the connective tissues are the site of several more or less distinctive immunological and inflammatory reactions. The hereditary (genetic) connective tissue diseases include Marfan syndrome, homocystinuria, and osteogenesis imperfecta. The acquired diseases include, among many others, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatic fever, and osteoarthritis. Both types of disease are described in this article.
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