Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2019C00015:reg:7
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2019C00015
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 7
Character Range: 3767–6080

7               Kind of injury, disease or death to which this Statement of Principles relates
(1)          This Statement of Principles is about localised sclerosis and death from localised sclerosis.
Meaning of localised sclerosis
(2)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, localised sclerosis (also known as localised scleroderma or morphea):
(a)          means an autoimmune, fibrosing connective tissue disorder characterised by localised skin thickening with increased quantities of collagen; and
(b)          excludes systemic sclerosis, graft versus host disease with dermal fibrosis, and scleroderma-like conditions (for example, lipodermatosclerosis, scleromyxoedema, eosinophilic fasciitis and chronic radiation dermatitis).
Note 1: Localised sclerosis is limited to the skin, subcutaneous tissue and underlying bone.
Note 2: Localised sclerosis typically presents with an absence of sclerodactyly, Raynaud phenomenon and nailfold capillary changes, and is not associated with major vascular symptoms or with visceral disease.
Note 3: The diagnosis of localised sclerosis is based on clinical findings, although histopathologic confirmation is sometimes needed to rule out other diseases.  Serological markers for localised sclerosis include elevated levels of antinuclear antibody, anti-ssDNA antibody, anti-topoisomerase II alpha antibody and rheumatoid factor.
(3)          While localised sclerosis attracts ICD‑10‑AM code L94.0 or L94.1, in applying this Statement of Principles the meaning of localised sclerosis is that given in subsection (2).
(4)          For subsection (3), a reference to an ICD-10-AM code is a reference to the code assigned to a particular kind of injury or disease in The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM), Tenth Edition, effective date of 1 July 2017, copyrighted by the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, ISBN 978-1-76007-296-4.
Death from localised sclerosis
(5)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, localised sclerosis, in relation to a person, includes death from a terminal event or condition that was contributed to by the person's localised sclerosis.
Note: terminal event is defined in the Schedule 1 – Dictionary.