Vasculitis

There are different types of vasculitis and each type involves its symptoms. These types are:

• Behcet’s disease: This vasculitis type causes symptoms like genital ulcers, and is usually more common than others. It is a rare problem causing blood vessel inflammation causing the signs like skin rashes, lesions, mouth sores, and eye inflammation.
• Buerger's disease: Buerger's disease is an uncommon artery disease and veins in the legs and arms. It involves damaging or destroying the skin tissues and causes infection and gangrene. The signs are numbness in feet and hands, reddish, pale hands or feet, inflammation in veins, pale fingers and toes, etc.
• Churg-Strauss syndrome: This vasculitis type involves affecting adults from the age group of 30- 45. It leads to causing issues like high temperature, tiredness, appetite loss, weight loss, and asthma. The treatment for this is often the use of steroid medications.
• Giant cell arteritis: It is a vasculitis type that involves affecting the head and neck arteries and happens to people ranging above 50 years of age. It is also known as temporal arteritis and causes jaw muscle pain, headaches, double vision, aching, and soreness across the temples.
• Granulomatosis with polyangiitis: It is also known as Wegner’s granulomatosis and is a vasculitis type affecting the blood vessels in different parts of the body such as lungs, kidneys, sinuses, ears, and nose. Usually, elderly and mid-age people are affected by it. This causes issues like night sweats, sinus inflammation, nosebleeds, high temperatures, breath shortness, and kidney issues.
• Henoch-Schonlein purpura: It is one of the vasculitis types that are rare and often takes place among children affecting their bowels, kidneys, and skin. it causes joint pain, diarrhoea, being sick, abdominal pain, bruises or rashes, and blood in urine or stool.
• Kawasaki disease: This vasculitis type involves affecting children of five years and causes issues like swollen glands, dry or cracked lips, red fingers, redness in eyes, rashes, etc.
• Takayasu’s arteritis: This type only involves affecting females and is a rare vasculitis type. It impacts the primary heart artery and other primary branches in the arteries. It causes problems like weight loss, high temperature, massive tiredness, dizziness, breath shortness, and painful and cold limbs.

There is no understanding of the vasculitis causes yet and isn’t fully comprehended. There are types associated with an individual genetic formation. It also involves the immune system attacking blood vessel cells wrongly. Here are some of the probable vasculitis causes:

• One of the main causes of vasculitis is Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C infections.
• Secondly, the usual cause is a blood cancer.
• There can be diseases related to the immune system like lupus, scleroderma, and rheumatoid arthritis.
• If there is a reaction to any drug, then it causes vasculitis.

The vasculitis symptoms of most types are the same and include fever, fatigue, headache, weight loss, general aches, and pains. There are other symptoms linked to other parts of the affected body that are:

• An individual can experience digestive system-related issues specifically after eating. There is a possibility of perforations and ulcers that can cause blood in the stool.
• One can face symptoms related to the ears. There can be dizziness, loss of hearing, and ringing in the ears.
• Another most affected is observed through eyes. Vasculitis can cause redness, burning, and itchiness in the eyes. If there is a problem with giant cell arteritis, then it can cause issues like double vision and blindness that could be temporary or permanent in both eyes or one eye.
• There are symptoms related to hands and feet as well. Individuals suffering from the disease experience weakness, and numbness in their hands or foot. There can be a feeling of swelling or hardening.
• It also affects the lungs as well and causes the symptoms such as breath shortness, and blood in the cough.
• Lastly, there are symptoms related to the skin as well that involve red spots and cause open sores or lumps on the skin.

The vasculitis diagnosis depends on an individual’s clinical history, present symptoms, total physical assessment, and specialised laboratory test outcomes. The doctor can recommend a test for blood anomalies which takes place when vasculitis is present. These anomalies can be anaemia, high white blood cell, high platelet count, and signs of kidney or liver issues. Blood tests are recommended to diagnose the complexes and antibodies in the immune system as they can be linked with vasculitis. There are additional tests like tissue biopsies, X-rays, heart scans, and blood vessels.

The vasculitis treatment entirely relies on the particular type and the area or organs that are linked. There are certain measures one must take as a treatment for vasculitis like using corticosteroids and prednisone. The doctor also recommends medications that help in suppressing the immune system for more severe kinds of vasculitis.

Sometimes vasculitis can cause an aneurysm. So, there might be a requirement for surgery. Surgery will help in reducing the rupturing risk and will also help in restoring the blood flow due to blocked arteries.

There are other recommended treatments as well that include:

• The very first thing recommended by a doctor is that one must understand the condition. It will help in knowing about the medication and drugs you take and can observe any changes if it occurs as an effect.
• It is important to follow the treatment plan such as visiting your doctor regularly and checking your blood pressure.
• Make sure to be involved in healthy eating habits.
• You should also make sure to get vaccinated on time as recommended by your doctors like for flu or pneumonia.
• You must also get into some kind of physical exertion at least for 30 minutes a day.

Rukmani Birla Hospital, Jaipur is among the best multi-speciality hospital providing the utmost care to its patients for years. The hospital has been enthusiastic about delivering services fulfilling the requirements of patients and ensuring their best health. We aim at making India healthy and happy. To achieve our objective, we have ensured the integration of the team of doctors who aren’t highly professional in their departments but also extremely qualified with years of experience.

Our doctors are so dedicated that they ensure their availability to each patient whenever they require any treatment or assistance regarding some health condition.

We have amalgamated the latest and smart-of-the-art technology that not only helps us in offering affordable treatment but also fast and reliable services to the patients. If you experience a health condition like vasculitis, we have a separate department of orthopaedics combining the best doctors. All in all, RBH is your one-stop solution for the treatment of any serious health condition you ever come across.