Vasculitis - what is this disease and how to comprehensively affect the body with this pathology?
Vascular damage
Blood vessels, due to various negative factors, can lose their functions, which affects the state of the whole organism.
Systemic vasculitis is a disease that is associated with pathological changes in the walls of blood vessels. At the present stage, several types of this ailment are distinguished.
Types of Systemic Disease
The studied types of pathological changes in blood vessels:
- The defeat of individual segments of arteries of medium or small caliber is called nodular periarthritis.
- A disease that primarily affects the arteries and blood vessels of the respiratory tract and lungs, and then the kidneys, is defined as Wegener's granulomatosis.
- Systemic vasculitis, the symptoms of which indicate the pathology of large vessels of the body (more often - the arteries of the head), is called giant cell temporal arteritis.
- Inflammatory processes in the large arteries and aorta are defined as Takayasu's disease, or non-specific aortoarteritis.
- When the pathology concerns the arteries of the muscle type, then the disease is defined as thromboangiitis obliterans.
- A systemic disease that is accompanied by symptoms such as stomatitis, pathological changes in the tissues of the oral cavity and mucous membranes of the genitals, as well as changes in the eye, is called Behcet’s syndrome.
- Allergic vasculitis.
All of the above forms are associated with certain causes that provoke changes in the walls of blood vessels and a violation of their functions.
Causes of the disease
To determine the course of rational treatment and preventive measures, you need to know what causes this or that pathological change in the vessel. In this case, systemic vasculitis may have a favorable outcome for the patient.
All factors that provoke the occurrence of this pathology have not been thoroughly studied, but several reasons can be assumed:
- Systemic vasculitis as a reaction of the body to the use of certain medications. A pathological change in the walls of the vessels can also provoke a viral disease that has not been cured for a long time.
- Systemic vasculitis as a complication of some aggressive infectious diseases that have been transmitted.
- Blood vessels can break down during diseases such as reactive arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory processes in the thyroid gland, chronic autoimmune pathologies, Schwarz-Jampel syndrome, and sometimes glomerulonephritis.
All of these factors determine systemic vasculitis. Symptoms and treatment of pathology are not always interconnected, because some manifestations of the disease pass in a latent form, while others, on the contrary, push for the conclusion of an incorrect diagnosis.
What is going on in the body? Pathogenesis
The pathology of the vascular system entails dangerous changes in the body that occur at different stages of the disease. The bottom line is that the inflammatory process captures the vessels with the subsequent destruction of their walls.
Each presented type of vasculitis proceeds with its own characteristics.
What changes are associated with each species?
- With Behcet's syndrome , manifestations in the oral cavity are observed, in particular stomatitis, which occurs with relapses. The second common symptom is ulcers in the scrotum in men, and in women, in the vagina and on the external genitalia. In addition to the mucous membrane, this type of vasculitis in various degrees affects the eyeballs.
- Thromboangiitis obliterans is accompanied by such complaints of patients as the development of lameness or sudden numbness of the hands.
- Non-specific aortoarteritis results in consequences such as pain in the lower and upper extremities, back pain that is given to the stomach, as well as fainting and irregularities associated with the eyes.
The remaining forms, depending on the severity, practically do not differ in symptoms, but require an individual approach to treatment.
Symptomatic picture
The symptomatology of vascular disease can change its picture, depending on what the localization of the process and the pathology that accompany it.
Skin vasculitis causes rashes, and pathological disorders in the nervous system entail increased sensitivity, which can vary from hypersensitivity to decreased sensitivity or its complete absence.
When the blood circulation of the vessels of the brain is disturbed, then strokes and heart attacks can occur. Allergic vasculitis manifests itself as a typical allergic reaction of the body to an irritant.
Signs of vascular pathology
There are well-known common symptoms of any type of vasculitis, these are:
- complete or partial loss of appetite;
- weakness of the body, which appears for no reason and is accompanied by apathy;
- fatigue, both physical and moral;
- elevated body temperature - subfebrile, only sometimes comes to febrile;
- pallor of the skin associated with a violation of the general blood flow in the body.
What other course has systemic vasculitis? What kind of disease is it and how to resist it can be found by some common signs. For example, the nodular type of vasculitis is manifested by aching muscle pain throughout the body. The pain spreads to the stomach, provokes weight loss, intestinal disorders, vomiting, nausea and, as a result, mental disorders.
Wegner's granulomatosis provokes pathologies in the nasal cavity, more precisely, in its sinus - pus, blood and mucus are secreted. Ulcerative processes may occur on the nasal mucosa. Then there is a cough, pain behind the sternum, shortness of breath, renal failure and others.
Skin lesion
When pathological processes in the vessels are caused by an allergic reaction, then this type is called skin vasculitis. How do skin vasculitis occur?
The presented disease has several types of course:
- type one - nodular necrotic, or Werther-Dumling, manifests itself through dermal nodes on the bluish-colored skin with a brown tint;
- the second is the allergic arteriolitis of Ruiter, which is manifested by typical erythrematous rashes on the skin, as well as hemorrhagic crusts, ulcers, erosions, followed by necrosis.
Diagnosis of systemic vascular disease
The choice of diagnostic methods should be based on the external manifestations of vasculitis, but resort to additional measures in the examination to determine its hidden forms.
First, a potential patient needs to take a blood test to determine changes in it. When the quantitative indicators of hemoglobin are significantly lower than normal, this indicates the beginning of anemic processes in the body - a serious complication of vascular pathology.
Rarely, but it happens when the diagnosis of "systemic vasculitis" is made on the basis of an analysis of urine if red blood cells and white blood cells are found in it.
The second most important analysis, but no less important for diagnosis, is a biopsy. For this purpose, a part of the vessel tissue should be taken from the patient for microscopic examination.
Systemic vasculitis. Symptoms and treatment
Depending on whether it is allergic or vasculitis secondary, the treatment is prescribed individually, and it is aimed not only at treating a specific pathology, but also at restoring the whole body, which was significantly affected by vascular pathology.
The aim of treatment is to completely eliminate the symptoms of the disease, normalize the functioning of blood vessels and blood circulation.
Drugs that are effective in systemic vasculitis:
- corticosteroid drugs;
- chemotherapeutic drugs;
- immunosuppressants.
With more aggressive vasculitis, intensive therapy and treatment are necessary. This is necessary in case of disruption of vital organs, such as the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys. In this case, the patient is resuscitated, followed by symptomatic treatment.
Skin vasculitis must be treated on an outpatient basis or in a hospital, depending on the progressiveness of the pathological process. With this disease, the effect of radical reorganization on the focus of infection, which proceeds already in the chronic stage, will be effective.
The patient should adhere to bed rest and take the following drugs:
- antihistamines, among which the medicines Diprazin, Diphenhydramine, Fenkarol will be effective for vasculitis;
- calcium trace element preparations - 10% injection of calcium chloride or gluconate solution;
- rutin, ascorbic acid.
In case of inefficiency, more complex methods of treatment are used with the use of hormonal drugs, such as the drugs Prednisolone and Dexamethasone.
When the disease is accompanied by ulcerative and necrotic processes, the treatment includes topical use of glucocorticoid ointment (Borne-naphthalan ointment, Methyluracil ointment and others), epithelial plastic preparations.
With prolonged but ineffective treatment, angiotrophic agents are used. These are drugs "Dobesilate-calcium", "Xanthinol nicotinate" and others.
What is the prognosis of this disease?
The prognosis depends on the type of vasculitis and the severity of the disease. Early diagnosis and timely treatment can significantly extend the life of the patient. It is very important to correctly diagnose and develop an optimal treatment regimen. It is necessary to correctly choose medications and dosage in order to avoid complications and side effects.
It is impossible to predict in advance the outcome of a disease such as systemic vasculitis. Treatment, most likely, will have to last a lifetime. Usually the disease proceeds in a chronic form, and periods of exacerbation give way to periods of remission. Vasculitis is most often not completely cured. A person is forced to constantly visit a doctor and control the symptoms.