Hi Lisa,

Dupuytren's disease can develop quite fast or very slowly, within months or over years and decades. It is very difficult to predict who is a candidate for fast development, i.e. who's Dupuytren's is relatively aggressive. Dupuytren's diathesis is an attempt to combine several features and use them as indication for an aggressive form of the disease. This attempt has been questioned and modified several times. Results are contradictonary and Dupuytren's diathesis is not yet fully established. The scoring by Abe at al. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15336743 is another attempt to predict aggressiveness and the odds for recurrence. Prediciting the aggressiveness of Dupuytren's remains very difficult.

BTW, I myself have all 4 signs that you mentioned. I have been suffering from Dupuytren's for over 30 years by now and I am still doing OK. I would not be too concerned about Dupuytren's diathesis.

Wolfgang

Good to read Wolfgang's comments. We are very fortunate he gives his time and energy to this board. Can't imagine where we would be without it. Ignorant and dependent on uninformed hand surgeons for sure!

Below is a copy of a post I made several years ago on this. I've always considered myself to be in this category although I don't yet have LD or other presentation. So perhaps it is not something to worry about.
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A "diathesis" presentation is usually considered more aggressive Dupuytren's biology which could indicate a higher rate of recurrence among other things.

Some of the diathesis indicators are:
- immediate family with disease
- early age onset
- bilateral (both hands)
- more fingers involved
- disease on radial side of hand (index finger and thumb)
- other presentations of similar disease (feet, knuckles, shoulder, etc.)
- higher degree of nodularity
- rapid progression of disease
The more indicators you have, the more likely you were to have "diathesis".

Edited 10/05/14 18:17

Tusk,

You wrote: “Good to read Wolfgang's comments. We are very fortunate he gives his time and energy to this board. Can't imagine where we would be without it. Ignorant and dependent on uninformed hand surgeons for sure!”

Tusk, I want to humbly echo your comments and second what you have said. For a person of Wolfgang’s standing to volunteer to give so much of his personal time and effort in helping others in such an unselfish manner is absolutely outstanding! People may not know this, but much of the value of this forum is due to Wolfgang’s tireless work in the background – working towards a sharing of information in the context of a poorly understood disease. I know his doctorate is in a discipline that is far from the subject matter of this forum, but he is so self-educated in the topic of this DD and LD condition that he is respected as an expert - even by the medical community in the context this condition.

While I am at this (well intentioned) moment of praise – I would also like to also acknowledge SpannishBuddha for his constant support and wisdom in his unselfish contributions. Almost always first to welcome a new member and to pass on his words on encouragement.... even if sometimes he seems over careful on the 'mind your hands' point!

Congratulating forum members does little to alleviate the personal problems of DD and LD suffers for individual members – but without such support we would be missing one good light in the darkness.

pia2some:

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I have had two hand specialist tell me I have Dupuytren's diathesis. I have gone through Xiaflex, palmar fasciectomy and NA and had DC flare terribly after each treatment. Obviously, I have an aggressive form of DC. It is what it is.

Try not to let it worry you too much.

~ dawn