Nodular periarteritis is called systemic vasculitis, a type of artery disease, which is characterized by lesions of the walls of medium and small arteries of an inflammatory-necrotic nature. The clinical picture of this disease begins with fever, arthralgia and myalgia. Then such syndromes may occur: neurological, cutaneous, thromboangiitis, cardiac, renal and pulmonary.
In order to confirm nodular periarteritis, a morphological study of skin biopsies is performed. In treatment, immunosuppressants, corticosteroids and cytostatics are most often used. You can talk about the severity of the disease only after studying the degree of damage to the internal organs.
The etiology of this disease is not yet entirely clear. It is believed that periarteritis nodosa occurs due to a viral infection, for example, hepatitis B. Moreover, serum, vaccination, some medicine, as well as hypothermia can be a stimulant of the disease.
The answer to all these factors is a hyperergic reaction. Most often, men aged 30 to 50 years suffer from periarteritis nodosa.
Periarteritis nodosa: classification
The disease is divided into:
- Classical.
- Cutaneous thromboangiitis.
- Asthmatic.
- Monoorgan.
The development of the disease is considered benign when a cutaneous form of bezserceropathy is noted. Patients are considered safe in social and somatic terms. Remissions from them are quite persistent, but nevertheless exacerbations of vasculitis are not excluded.
Thromboangiotic variant of the disease is characterized by slow progress. With it, arterial hypertension, microcirculatory disorders and peripheral neuritis are common.
Relapse of periarteritis nodosa occurs due to the cancellation or lowering of the dose of glucocorticoids, cytostatics, infection, cooling and drug allergies.
Such stages of the disease are distinguished: active, inactive and sclerotic.
In quite rare cases, a situation may occur when periarteritis nodosa develops with lightning speed and leads the patient to death within a year.
Periarteritis nodosa: symptoms
If there is a period of exacerbation of the disease, fever, chills, pain in the muscles and joints, weight loss and signs characteristic of polyarthritis are observed. Sometimes severe pain in the abdomen can occur, in which a dyspeptic character is clearly expressed. Also a frequent phenomenon with periarteritis nodosa is severe pain in the muscles.
Renal lesions and the appearance of hypertension, which in some cases becomes malignant, are very characteristic of this disease. There is protein in the urine. Quite often, the heart can be affected, myocardial infarction may occur.
In some cases, the disease can begin with lung damage, bronchial asthma.
If the disease has become chronic, common symptoms such as polyarthritis and fever may disappear. But instead of them, a syndrome of damage to some internal organ appears. For example, heart or kidney. Emerging exacerbations can lead to damage to other organs and systems.
The disease is diagnosed based on the defeat of certain organs in combination with fever and chills. In addition, suspicions about this disease can arise due to damage to organs, for example, kidneys, heart or lungs. Crucial for the diagnosis is the constant monitoring of the patient. In general, there are no specific symptoms specific to a given disease. Sometimes the diagnosis can be confirmed by examining a piece of muscle or skin that was obtained by biopsy.
Now you know what periarteritis nodosa is, its treatment should be carried out only under the supervision of a doctor.