CHAPTER 10 Vasculitis

High index of clinical suspicion of vasculitis should be in the mind of practicing physician when he encounters a patient with unexplained ischemia or multiple organ involvement in the form of arthritis, palpable purpura, glomerlonephritis or multiple mononeuropathy. When systemic vasculitis is suspected the first step is to exclude other processes such as connective tissue disorders (RA, SLE, etc.), infection (Bact. Endocarditis, viral, fungal, etc.), malignancy, drug reactions (Table-3). If primary vasculitis is clinically diagnosed then try to classify the disorder on the basis of the size of the vessels involved into large medium or small vessel vasculitis (Table-1). After determining the size of major vessels involved other issues that contribute to the classification include: