What is Vasculitis?
Vasculitis means inflammation of the blood vessels. When a part of your body becomes inflamed, it swells and usually causes pain and discomfort. Blood vessels are the tubes that carry blood to various parts of the body. There are three types of blood vessels that can be affected by vasculitis:
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Arteries, which carry blood from the heart to various parts of the body.
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Veins, which return blood to the heart.
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Capillaries, which are very small vessels between arteries and veins where oxygen and other substances pass from the blood into the tissues.
What causes vasculitis?
There is no single cause, and in most cases the cause is unknown. What we do know is that vasculitis is not directly inherited. Some types of vasculitis have specific causes, such as medications and a group of diseases, especially those associated with hepatitis, which may cause small-vessel vasculitis.
What are the main effects of vasculitis?
Vasculitis can affect any organ system in the body, resulting in a wide range of symptoms. However, the main effects of vasculitis often present as skin lesions.
What should the doctor do?
A complete medical history should be taken given the nature of many vasculitis diseases, and a full physical examination should be performed, including a central nervous system examination and an ear, nose, and throat examination.
How is vasculitis diagnosed?
Depending on the affected organ, a battery of organ function tests may show abnormal results. A definitive diagnosis of vasculitis is confirmed when a biopsy of the affected tissue shows inflammation of the blood vessels. An X-ray test of the blood vessels, called an angiogram, can be an alternative to biopsy and can show characteristic features of inflammation in the affected vessels.
What are the treatment options for vasculitis?
Corticosteroids (glucocorticoids) are important hormones for treating most forms of vasculitis. Glucocorticoids are used either because the disease is very severe, or because glucocorticoids alone are insufficient for treatment, or because the long-term side effects of other medications are less severe than those of glucocorticoids. Cyclophosphamide is one of the most potent immunosuppressive drugs and is used to treat severe disease. Both methotrexate and azathioprine are widely used to treat other rheumatologic diseases and are also used to treat vasculitis that is not life-threatening, and they are beneficial for steroid sparing. Occasionally, plasma exchange and intravenous immunoglobulin are used in acute cases to treat certain types of vasculitis thought to be caused by the spread of autoantibodies.
