Vasculitis as a Cause of First-Ever Stroke

The term “vasculitis” includes a heterogeneous group of multisystemic disorders characterized pathologically by inflammation of blood vessels [1,2,3]. Inflammation can involve some, or all, of the thickness of the vessel wall. Immune complexes are a major component of vasculitis syndromes, and cellular mechanisms play a major pathogenic role in giant cell arteritis [4-12]. Arterial lesion can lead to stenosis, occlusion, and ischemic infarction [1,13]. The diagnosis of vasculitis is difficult in most cases because of the insidious nature of the disease and the fact that various parts of the circulation can be affected without definitive signs or symptoms [1, 13-15]. More often than not, the diagnosis of vasculitis is made indirectly [1,15,16]. It is an infrequent disorder and a rare cause of stroke, even in young age groups [1,17-19]. Corticosteroid therapy is the basic and most common treatment for this disease, irrespective of the antigen involved or the type of vasculitis syndrome [1,4,5,8,20,21]. The aim of this study was to use the Lausanne Stroke Registry (LSR) to evaluate how often vasculitis is a cause of first-ever stroke, and to determine the risk factors, clinical and radiological patterns, and early outcome for stroke with vasculitis.