Hands and feet do not obey, become hard, the skin is dry and cracked like bark, the color became black …… Yesterday, the reporter met such a patient in the rheumatology ward of Zhejiang Xinhua Hospital, unfortunately she suffered from a strange disease called “zombie disease”. The doctor said that the development of this disease to late, the patient will be like a zombie, the whole body is hard, similar to a wooden man. The hands and feet turned black thinking that the disease will be healed lying in the hospital bed Zhu sister is Anji Xiaofeng town people. When the reporter saw her, she found her hands and feet exposed outside the bedding dry as bark, the whole face is also black, like a charcoal man. Only 54 years old this year, she already looks very old. Zhu stretched out her hands, a closer look at her skin are taut, finger joints show white ulcers, but also some odor. Ten fingers are also not working well, making a fist movement is very difficult. Both legs are straight on the bed and cannot be bent. When it comes to this strange disease, Zhu has a belly full of words. The original last May, she felt her chest tightness and shortness of breath, to the local hospital, was diagnosed as interstitial lung disease for medical treatment. Soon after returning home, Zhu found that her joints began to swell and hurt, her legs, feet and arms developed skin edema, and gradually the skin above her hands, feet and neck began to turn dark and hard. “According to our local saying, before a serious illness, people will be like a snake molting a layer of skin, I thought my disease has to turn good, and did not care so much.” I did not expect that after a month, Zhu’s health did not get better as expected, but worse and worse. Sister Zhu also did not know what kind of disease she had, and began to rush to the doctor. She also ran to the Jianghu doctor to prescribe more than 10 post herbal medicine, but without any effect. “Later I also lost a lot of weight, legs and feet movement is not convenient, the flesh on the hands began to rot, smell the body began to smell bad, which rushed to Hangzhou to see a doctor.” The incidence rate is about three in a million Wang Xinchang, deputy director of the rheumatology department of the provincial Xinhua Hospital, took a closer look at Zhu’s condition and confirmed that she was suffering from systemic diffuse scleroderma, commonly known as “zombie disease” and “woody”. This disease is quite rare, the incidence is only about three in a million. “The body has elastic fiber tissue where there are muscles, the elasticity of our skin, muscle contraction are dependent on it. Ms. Zhu’s body has a lesion in the elastic fiber tissue, mainly because the skin’s fibroblasts overproliferation or high secretion of collagen (usually 10-20 times more than normal), resulting in the loss of skin elasticity. It’s like a rubber band that is originally elastic, but when 20 rubber bands are put together, it loses elasticity.” Dr. Wang said that Zhu’s muscle fibers lost their elasticity and later began to atrophy and gradually harden, which is what led to the current rigid condition of her entire body. If it continues to develop, the sclerosis will slowly extend from the hands and feet to the internal organs, and any body part with muscle fibers will stiffen, and the patient will look like a zombie. In the end, the lungs will have difficulty breathing and the heart will stop beating, seriously endangering life. Dr. Wang set up an elaborate treatment plan for Sister Zhu. First, immune preparations were used to control further deterioration, and the next stage of treatment was a combination of Chinese and Western medicine, with internal medicine plus external fumigation of Chinese herbs to gradually soften Ms. Zhu’s skin. The whole course of treatment is estimated to take six months. The cause of “zombie disease” is still unclear The reporter learned that scleroderma is a clinical skin inflammation, degeneration, thickening and fibrosis and then sclerosis, atrophy as a characteristic of connective tissue disease, diffuse type, limb type, limited type. Zhu’s diffuse type is the most severe type of the disease. Wherever there is muscle, it slowly hardens. The other two types of sclerosis occur only locally in the body. Dr. Wang told reporters that sclerosis is a non-infectious rare disease, the cause of the disease is still unclear. The age of onset is mostly between 30-50 years old, and women are higher than men. The disease can involve the whole body multi-system, causing the corresponding system lesions, if the disease develops to organ insufficiency, the treatment effect and prognosis is poor, so early diagnosis and early treatment is of great significance to patients. Dr. Wang reminded the patients that they should pay attention when they have typical skin sclerosis or darkening, Raynaud’s phenomenon (red and purple skin of fingers at the same time), esophageal dysfunction (such as difficulty in swallowing or discomfort) and other manifestations and positive serum signature antibodies (anti-Scl-70), and promptly go to the rheumatology department for consultation. The treatment for patients with different types of scleroderma is different, and as long as the treatment is timely and appropriate, the disease should be effectively controlled.