Vasculitis is a group of disorders that destroy blood vessels by inflammation. Both arteries and veins are affected. Lymphangitis is sometimes considered a type of vasculitis. Vasculitis is primarily caused by leukocyte migration and resultant damage.
Panniculitis is a group of diseases whose hallmark is inflammation of subcutaneous adipose tissue. Symptoms include tender skin nodules, and systemic signs such as weight loss and fatigue.
Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), formerly known as Wegener's Granulomatosis (WG), is a long-term systemic disorder that involves both granulomatosis and polyangiitis. It is a form of vasculitis that affects small- and medium-size vessels in many organs but most commonly affects the upper respiratory tract and the kidneys. Therefore, the signs and symptoms of GPA are highly varied and reflect which organs are supplied by the affected blood vessels. Typical signs and symptoms include nosebleeds, stuffy nose and crustiness of nasal secretions, and inflammation of the uveal layer of the eye. Damage to the heart, lungs and kidneys can be fatal.
Henoch–Schönlein purpura (HSP) is a disease of the skin, mucous membranes, and sometimes other organs that most commonly affects children. In the skin, the disease causes palpable purpura, often with joint pain and abdominal pain. With kidney involvement, there may be a loss of small amounts of blood and protein in the urine, but this usually goes unnoticed; in a small proportion of cases, the kidney involvement proceeds to chronic kidney disease. HSP is often preceded by an infection, such as a throat infection.
Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), also known as allergic granulomatosis, is an extremely rare autoimmune condition that causes inflammation of small and medium-sized blood vessels (vasculitis) in persons with a history of airway allergic hypersensitivity (atopy).
Kawasaki disease, also known as mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome, is a disease in which blood vessels throughout the body become inflamed. The most common symptoms include a fever that lasts for more than five days not affected by usual medications, large lymph nodes in the neck, a rash in the genital area, and red eyes, lips, palms or soles of the feet. Other symptoms include sore throat and diarrhea. Within three weeks of the onset of symptoms, the skin from the hands and feet may peel. Recovery then typically occurs. In some children, coronary artery aneurysms may form in the heart after 1–2 years.
Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), also known as panarteritis nodosa, periarteritis nodosa, Kussmaul disease, or Kussmaul-Maier disease, is a systemic necrotizing inflammation of blood vessels (vasculitis) affecting medium-sized muscular arteries, typically involving the arteries of the kidneys and other internal organs but generally sparing the lungs' circulation. Polyarteritis nodosa may be present in infants. In polyarteritis nodosa, small aneurysms are strung like the beads of a rosary, therefore making "rosary sign" an important diagnostic feature of the vasculitis. PAN is associated with infection by the hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus.
Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCAs) are a group of autoantibodies, mainly of the IgG type, against antigens in the cytoplasm of neutrophil granulocytes and monocytes. They are detected as a blood test in a number of autoimmune disorders, but are particularly associated with systemic vasculitis, so called ANCA-associated vasculitides (AAV).
Cryoglobulinemia is a medical condition in which the blood contains large amounts of pathological cold sensitive antibodies called cryoglobulins – proteins that become insoluble at reduced temperatures. This should be contrasted with cold agglutinins, which cause agglutination of red blood cells.
Golfer's vasculitis, exercise-induced vasculitis and hiker's rash, are names proposed by different medical researchers for a form of vasculitis resulting in a purpuric rash. It is often experienced in the lower legs caused by excessive exercise in hotter temperatures. It is more common among older people.
Benzylthiouracil (BTU) is an antithyroid preparation. It is a thioamide, closely related to propylthiouracil.
Erythema elevatum diutinum is a form of vasculitis.
Cerebral vasculitis is vasculitis involving the brain and occasionally the spinal cord. It affects all of the vessels: very small blood vessels (capillaries), medium-size blood vessels, or large blood vessels. If blood flow in a vessel with vasculitis is reduced or stopped, the parts of the body that receive blood from that vessel begins to die. It may produce a wide range of neurological symptoms, such as headache, skin rashes, feeling very tired, joint pains, difficulty moving or coordinating part of the body, changes in sensation, and alterations in perception, thought or behavior, as well as the phenomena of a mass lesion in the brain leading to coma and herniation. Some of its signs and symptoms may resemble multiple sclerosis. 10% have associated bleeding in the brain.
Pauci-immune vasculitis is a form of vasculitis that is associated with minimal evidence of hypersensitivity upon immunofluorescent staining for IgG.
Necrotizing vasculitis also called Systemic necrotizing vasculitus (SNV) is a category of vasculitis, comprising vasculitides that present with necrosis.
Cutaneous small-vessel vasculitis, also known as hypersensitivity vasculitis, cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis, hypersensitivity angiitis, cutaneous leukocytoclastic angiitis, cutaneous necrotizing vasculitis and cutaneous necrotizing venulitis, is inflammation of small blood vessels, characterized by palpable purpura. It is the most common vasculitis seen in clinical practice.
Urticarial vasculitis is a skin condition characterized by fixed urticarial lesions that appear histologically as a vasculitis.
Cryoglobulinemic vasculitis is a form of inflammation affecting the blood vessels caused by the deposition of abnormal proteins called cryoglobulins in the blood vessels. Cryoglobulinemic vasculitis affects the skin and causes a rash in roughly 15% of people with detectable circulating cryoglobulin proteins. Additionally, the kidneys may be affected by this form of vasculitis resulting in membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. Fevers, painful muscles and joints, and peripheral nerve damage are other common manifestations of cryoglobulinemic vasculitis. Due to deposition of complement, low levels of circulating complement factors may be seen.
Bullous small vessel vasculitis is a cutaneous condition in which patients with small vessel vasculitis will develop superimposed vesicles and bullae, especially on the distal extremities.
Retinal vasculitis is inflammation of the vascular branches of the retinal artery, caused either by primary ocular disease processes, or as a specific presentation of any systemic form of vasculitis such as Behçet's disease, sarcoidosis, multiple sclerosis, or any form of systemic necrotizing vasculitis such as temporal arteritis, polyarteritis nodosa, and granulomatosis with polyangiitis, or due to lupus erythematosus, or rheumatoid arthritis. Eales disease, pars planitis, birdshot retinochoroidopathy, and Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis (FHI) can also cause retinal vasculitis. Infectious pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, visceral larva migrans can also cause retinal vasculitis.
