Vasculitis- Causes and Treatment For Vasculitis Vasculitis means an inflammation caused to blood vessels. There are different kinds of vasculitis and most types are rare and causes are generally unknown. It can affect person of both the sexes and a broad range of ages. Let’s understand in detail what this disease is all about: The disease refers to inflammation of the blood vessels, which include arteries and veins. This can result into poor blood flow to the tissues and throughout the body parts like lungs, nerves and skin. It has a wide range of symptoms like: Symptoms for vasculitis Shortness of breath and cough Weakness in hand or foot Red spots on the skin The disease can be mild or life-threatening or it may even lead to death. Patients suffering from one episode of this disease or may have repeated episodes for several years. Mostly, it is a rare disorder.
Causes Exactly the cause of this disease is unknown. Genetic factors are responsible for this disease. It is an auto-immune disorder that means the body attacks its own immune system. In this disease, the blood vessels are affected. Some cases of this disease are caused by allergic reaction to the medicine. Also, some chronic infections like Hepatitis C or B, can cause this disease. It is a part of other rheumatic diseases like systematic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, erythematosus and Sjogren’s syndrome. Most of the patients suffering from this disease has no one of this disorder. Who is at risk? The disease can attack persons of both age and sexes. A few forms affect certain kind of people like for example, Kawasaki disease occurs in children. It is much more common in children and in adults.
Types The disease can be categorized as:
Giant cell arthritis Kawasaki disease Polyarteritis nodosa Behcet’s disease Relapsing polychondritis Takayasu's arteritis Aortitis in Cogan's syndrome Aortitis in spondylarthropathies Isolated aortitis
Diagnosis of disease For most of the patients, doctors can detect this kind of disease based on the affected or inflamed blood vessels and the organs involved. To find small vessel disease, doctor may conduct biopsy of skin or a kidney. Detection of medium sized vasculitis happens by the help of biopsy or angiography. Angiography is a test that helps to detect large vessel vasculitis. Detecting giant cell also includes biopsy of an artery or the scalp. A few types of this disease like Behcet’s disease and Kawasaki are detected on basis of clinical findings rather than biopsy or angiography. Some blood tests also suggest of a certain kind of this disease and the positive sign is an indication that the doctors need to conduct the test. The most useful kind of test includes antineutrophil cytoplasic antibodies. A positive ANCA test
detects the kind of disease present like granulomatosis and polyangitis, etc. Other lab tests can detect the damage caused to the organs, but tests are enough to prove this disease. Treatment for vasculitis Glucocorticoids- It is also called as steroids and it is an important way to treat the disease. The dose and length of the disease depends upon severity of the condition and how long the patient had it. These drugs reduce inflammation, but it has long-term side effects. Other Drugs- Doctors sometimes may prescribe immune suppressing drugs as their side effects are less serious than glucosteroids. This disease is also called as steroid sparing treatment. Cyclophosphamide is the strongest among these drugs and doctors may prescribe it in case of life-threatening condition. For less severe disease, the patients may receive medications like Methotrexate and Azathioprine and other immune suppressing drugs. Doctors may prescribe these drugs to treat rheumatoid disorder, but they are beneficial for vasculitis too. Newer drugs are helpful to treat other autoimmune and inflammatory disease. The researcher has found that one among these drugs, include rituximab to treat the severe case of these diseases.
Surgery-Last but not the least; damage to severe form of this disease requires surgery. It may involve vascular bypass grafting- a surgery that redirects the blood flow around the vessel blockage. Depending upon the damage, other operations that can be performed include sinus surgery and kidney transplant. The disease may even lead to permanent or long term disability.