Vasculitis is a dangerous disease of the blood vessels
Is vasculitis a harmless pathology or a dangerous disease that requires medical intervention and complex treatment?
We will talk in more detail about the causes of the disease, its types and forms, symptoms, diagnostic methods, treatment and prevention in our article.
What is this?
Vasculitis is a group of diseases that affect the vessels in the human body, both large and small. Immunopathological inflammation of veins, arteries, arterioles, venoles and small capillaries occurs.
This is a dangerous and very unpleasant disease that is difficult to treat.
Examination by a doctor
Reasons for development
The exact causes of the disease are not reliably known. The disease can suddenly occur even in a healthy person. Official medicine puts forward several main theories regarding the causes of vasculitis.
In 90% of cases, the disease occurs against the background of another infectious or viral disease. Viruses and bacteria give a powerful impetus to the development of inflammation in the vascular system of the body.
The most dangerous in terms of the possibility of developing vasculitis is viral hepatitis. It is after this disease that inflammatory processes in the vessels occur most often.
Predisposing factors
They are not the main “culprits” of the development of vasculitis, but can contribute to the development and progression of the pathology.
The most common predisposing factors are:
frequent and prolonged hypothermia;
negative impact on the body of various toxic substances;
genetic predisposition;
weakening of the body’s defenses (reduced immune status);
hyperactivity of the immune system (as a response to infection);
overheat;
poisoning;
skin damage (mechanical, thermal, etc.);
allergy to certain types of medications;
diseases and inflammatory processes of the thyroid gland;
autoimmune diseases;
complications of diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, reactive arthritis.
Mechanism of development
The development of vasculitis occurs as a result of the formation of so-called immune complexes. Getting into the blood and circulating, these elements are deposited on the walls of blood vessels and provoke their damage with the subsequent development of inflammation. The inflammatory process, in turn, increases the permeability of blood vessels and causes the appearance of the main pathological signs of vasculitis.
Types, forms, classification
Vasculitis has a huge number of types, forms, subtypes and classifications.
Some forms and types of the disease affect only the skin. Others affect vital organs and cause significant harm to the entire body, in extreme cases leading to death.
Forms of vasculitis
According to the causes of occurrence, vasculitis is divided into:
Primary. They are a consequence of inflammation of the walls of the blood vessels themselves. They occur independently and are not associated with other pathologies.
Secondary. They are the reaction of the vessels themselves to other diseases occurring in the body. Secondary vasculitis is inflammation that occurs against the background of viral or infectious diseases, oncology, and the use of certain medications.
Let us consider below the classification of vasculitis (CHCC nomenclature) depending on the localization of the disease.
Vasculitis of large vessels. We are talking about the following diseases:
Takayasu’s arteritis. An autoimmune pathology in which the walls of the aorta and its branches are affected by a pronounced inflammatory process. Women suffer from Takayasu’s arteritis much more often than men – in a ratio of 8:1.
Giant cell arteritis. Another autoimmune pathology that also affects the aorta and its branches and often occurs against the background of rheumatism. The most common cause of this type of vasculitis is infection of the patient with herpes or hepatitis viruses.
Medium vessel vasculitis:
Kawasaki disease. A disease that occurs in an acute febrile form and most often affects children. In this type of pathology, the inflammatory process involves not only large but also medium vessels – veins and arteries.
Nodular periarteritis. An illness during which inflammation of the walls of small and medium vessels occurs, which provokes more serious diseases and pathologies – myocardial infarction, thrombosis, etc. The most common “culprits” of the pathology are the hepatitis virus, as well as individual intolerance to certain drugs.
Small vessel vasculitis. ANCA-associated vasculitis is further subdivided into:
Granulomatosis with polyangiitis. A severe autoimmune disease that tends to progress rapidly. It affects capillaries, venules, and arterioles. Quite often, the lungs, organs of vision, and kidneys are involved in the pathological process.
Microscopic polyangiitis. A pathology poorly studied by modern medicine. When small vessels become inflamed in this way, several vital organs suffer at once – most often the kidneys and lungs.
Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis. An illness that occurs when there is an excessive amount of eosinophils in the blood, the excess of which leads to the development of severe inflammation in small and medium-sized vessels. In most cases, this disease affects the respiratory organs and kidneys, and the patient suffers from severe shortness of breath, intense runny nose or bronchial asthma.
Immune complex vasculitis of small vessels: immunoglobulin A associated vasculitis, cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, anti-GBM disease.
In addition, official medicine distinguishes vasculitis, which can simultaneously affect large, medium and small vessels. We are talking about such diseases as:
Behcet’s disease. The pathology manifests itself by the frequent appearance of ulcers on the surface of the mucous membranes (in the mouth, in the genital area, on the gastric mucosa, etc.).
Cogan syndrome.
In some situations, the disease affects specific organs (vasculitis of individual organs). When 2 or 3 organs are affected at the same time, doctors diagnose “systemic vasculitis”.
Symptoms
Regardless of the form and type, most vasculitis proceeds with similar symptoms. The most characteristic symptoms of the pathology:
loss of appetite followed by weight loss;
decrease in body temperature;
the appearance of unsightly rashes on the skin;
constant pain in the joints;
paleness of the skin;
rapid fatigue, weakness, malaise;
frequent sinusitis;
regular exacerbations of heart and vascular diseases;
nausea and vomiting;
sensory disturbances – from minimal to pronounced;
myalgia and arthralgia.
Vasculitis
Clinical manifestations of the disease may vary depending on the type of vasculitis and its location. In any case, the main symptom of the pathology remains a violation of normal blood circulation in the organs and systems of the body.
In children
Children suffer from the pathology many times more often than adults. The incidence of the disease is 25 cases per 100 thousand children. Minor patients in the overwhelming majority of cases face Kawasaki disease, as well as various types of systemic vasculitis. Children aged 4 to 12 years are most susceptible to the disease. Children under 3 years of age suffer from vasculitis extremely rarely.
In minors, the disease affects the joints, gastrointestinal tract, small vessels of the epidermis, and kidneys.
As the disease progresses, inflammation of the vessel walls occurs, followed by their blockage by blood clots. As a result, tissue nutrition processes are disrupted. Adequate and timely prescribed therapy makes it possible to cope with the disease within 4-6 weeks in 70% of children. In 30%, the pathology becomes chronic and periodically manifests itself in relapses.
Diagnostics
A comprehensive examination is carried out to detect a dangerous disease in a timely manner. Tests and specific studies that are indicated for patients with suspected vasculitis:
general blood and urine tests (allow you to confirm or refute the presence of an inflammatory process in the body);
biochemical blood test (in the development of vasculitis, it determines a decrease in hemoglobin, moderate thrombocytosis, leukocytosis and hematocrit);
angiography;
ECHO cardiography;
Ultrasound of the heart, kidneys, abdominal organs.
An X-ray examination of the lungs allows us to assess the condition of the affected vessels and the location of the inflammatory process.
Vasculitis is most difficult to diagnose in the early stages, when the disease does not have pronounced symptoms. As the disease progresses, it is much easier to identify. More obvious signs appear only when several organs are affected at once.
In the most severe cases, a biopsy of the affected tissues is performed to diagnose the disease, followed by a detailed examination.
Treatment
Accurate and timely diagnostics determine the effectiveness of treatment of vasculitis of any form and type by 50%. Elimination of initial organ damage and associated diseases is of no small importance.
