Vasculitis is a condition where your immune system causes inflammation in your blood vessels. Normally, inflammation helps your body fight disease or heal injuries. But with vasculitis, your immune system mistakenly attacks healthy blood vessels, causing them to swell and narrow.
This condition may cause mild skin problems, or it could become a severe disease affecting major organs like the heart or kidneys. It can involve three types of blood vessels:
1. Arteries: These carry blood from your heart to other parts of your body like kidneys and skin.
2. Veins: These return blood back to your heart.
3. Vessels: These small blood vessels allow oxygen and other elements to move from your blood to body tissues.
In vasculitis, inflammation swells up the blood vessel walls and this can limit, or even block, blood flow to tissues and organs. Depending on where in your body it happens, vasculitis can cause different symptoms and levels of harm. The larger the affected blood vessels, the more damage may occur. And if the affected body tissue is vital, the harm could be serious. If not treated, the blood vessels can swell to form an aneurysm that can burst and cause internal bleeding.
Vasculitis can appear suddenly in someone who has been perfectly healthy before, which is known as primary vasculitis. It can also happen alongside other conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or Sjögren’s syndrome, known as secondary vasculitis.
Vasculitis symptoms:
When a part of your body is inflamed, it swells and can feel uncomfortable or painful. Symptoms of vasculitis vary depending on which blood vessels it affects. Some common signs are feeling unwell, fever, fatigue, and weight loss.
Other symptoms are based on the affected part of the body, such as:
– Skin: Vasculitis can cause spots which may burst open into sores or ulcers.
– Nose: It can make the nose crusty and cause nosebleeds.
– Fingers and toes: People might experience Raynaud’s phenomenon, where fingers or toes turn white or blue, tingle or hurt in cold weather.
– Eyes: Vasculitis can suddenly affect your vision and cause red or painful eyes.
If you experience any of these symptoms, please consult with your doctor promptly.
Diagnosing Vasculitis:
Doctors use several tests to identify this condition. Blood tests might be performed to find inflammation signs or to assess white blood cell and platelet counts. Other tests could be done to check how the liver functions. Depending on the presence of other diseases like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus, additional blood tests could be needed to measure respective factors and antibodies.
Treatment:
Treatment depends on what blood vessels and organs are affected, and how severe the condition is. Medications will probably be needed to manage the disease, its symptoms, and prevent further damage. The main drugs used are steroids and immunosuppressants which work to control your body’s immune response. For vasculitis affecting larger blood vessels, steroid pills can be effective. If smaller or medium-sized blood vessels are involved, you might need a lower steroid dose.
In severe cases, you may need a combination of steroids and immunosuppressants for an extended period, especially if vasculitis affects internal organs. The treatment plan usually consists of stages and is tailor-made to the specific patient’s needs.
It is crucial to maintain a healthy lifestyle to minimize your chances of developing vasculitis.
