Diagnosis and symptoms of vasculitis.
There are 3 main categories of vasculitis. In all types, the blood vessels get inflammed and the organ supplied by that blood vessel can get necrosed (so you can even have tongue necrosis in something like Temporal arteritis if the blood vessels). Symptoms are based on the endorgans affected. Diagnosis usually requires measuring lvls of ESR, certain antibodies (p-ANCA, c-ANCA) and most importantly biopsy of effected tissue.
Large Vessel:
-Temporal arteritis (aka Giant Cell arteritis, older females, associated with polymalgia rheumatica, involves most commonly the temporal artery, biopsy is 90% sensitive, elevated ESR)
-Takayasu's (young Asian women, involves aortic arch and its branches, diagnose with arteriogram)
Medium Vessel:
-Kawasaki's (in kids)
-Churg-strauss (involves many organ systems, p-ANCA association, poor prognosis, biopsy of lung or skin tissue to confirm diagnosis)
-Wegner's granulomatosis (involves mainly the kidneys and upper/lower respiratory tracts, nodules/infiltrates on chest radiographs, c-ANCA association, very high ESR, open lung biopsy to confirm diagnosis)
-Polyarteritis nodosa or PAN (No pulmonary involvement, involves GI and nervosus system vessels, biopsy of involved tissue or mssenteric angiography)
-microscopic polyangiitis
Small Vessel:
-Henoch-Schonlein purpura
-Hypersensitivity vaculitis (caused by drug reaction, infection or other stimuli, Skin involvment: palpable pupura, macules, or vesicles, have to do biopsy to diagnose)
-Bechet's syndrome (oral and genital ulcers, have to do biopsy to diagnose)
-Buerger's disease (aka Thromboangiitis Obliterans, associated with smoking, affects arms and legs,