Urticarial vasculitis is characterised by inflamed itching or burning red patches or wheals that resemble urticaria but persist for greater than 24 hours. It is often idiopathic but is sometimes associated with collagen-vascular disease, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus. Treatment options include oral antihistamines, oral corticosteroids, dapsone, colchicine or hydroxychloroquine. We d...

OBJECTIVE Assessment of disease activity in vasculitis can be achieved using the BVAS, a clinical checklist of relevant symptoms, signs and features of active disease. The aim of this study was to revalidate the BVAS version 3 (BVAS v. 3) in a cohort of patients with systemic vasculitis. METHODS A total of 238 patients with vasculitis from seven countries in Europe were evaluated at a single ...

© 2014 The Authors. doi: 10.2340/00015555-1653 Journal Compilation © 2014 Acta Dermato-Venereologica. ISSN 0001-5555 Urticarial vasculitis is a form of leucocytoclastic vasculitis whereby the skin lesions resemble urticaria. It is associated with systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren’s syndrome, hepatitis B and C viruses (1). Rarely it is associated with an underlying haematological disorders a...

BACKGROUND Primary systemic vasculitis is a rare condition in children, which often has a slowly progressive course with diffuse symptoms and is therefore easily overlooked. Early initiation of treatment can prevent severe kidney disease. The aim of this study was to survey the extent of renal involvement in children with systemic vasculitis at Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet. MATERI...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary haemorrhage (PH) is a serious manifestation of systemic vasculitis with high mortality rates yet vasculitis is associated with an increased prevalence of venous thromboembolism (VTE). The concurrent presentation of severe PH and VTE poses a challenge in terms of therapeutic management. METHODS This is a retrospective case review of the clinical manifestations and response...

Gastrointestinal manifestations are common in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and the incidence of these conditions varies according to the methods of evaluation and the type of manifestation; the incidence of gastrointestinal manifestations varied between 15% and 75% in the majority of previously published studies. The clinical picture may vary from minor symptoms, such as or...

This study describes the occurrence of antiretinal antibodies and circulating immune complexes in the sera of a large series of patients with idiopathic retinal vasculitis whose ophthalmological and clinical features are presented in Part 1. Antiretinal antibodies were measured by indirect immunofluorescence and passive haemagglutination, and circulating immune complexes were measured by polyet...

Vasculitis is an accumulation of inflammatory leucocytes in the blood vessels with reactive damage to mural structures. Isolated vasculitis of the gastrointestinal tract without systemic involvement is rare. We report a unique case of a female patient who presented with abdominal pain, and was found, on serology, to have elevated inflammatory markers without autoantibodies. A computed tomograph...

Vasculitis create a local inflammatory process in the vessel wall, which determines the different organic manifestations according to vessel size and location. Imaging techniques play a key role in the characterization and detection of large and medium size vessel vasculitis. Imaging is able to detect the vessel wall edema and to monitor the therapeutic response. In small vessel vasculitis, ima...

Pathologic processes are underlying defining features of systemic vasculitis. When these pathologic processes can not be observed directly, surrogate signs and symptoms of disease must be used to conclude that vasculitis is present in a patient and, if so, to determine what specific type of vasculitis is present. This review briefly describes the most defining pathologic features of giant cell ...