Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a multiorgan connective tissue disease characterized by autoantibody production and fibroproliferative stenosis of the microvasculature. The vascoluopathy associated with SSc is considered to be noninflammatory, yet frank vasculitis can complicate SSc, posing diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. Here, we have reviewed the literature for reports of small-, medium-, ...

A woman with exacerbation of severe rheumatoid arthritis developed lesions compatible with retinal vasculitis. Laboratory studies confirmed the diagnosis, and the rapid clinical improvement that accompanied a fall in circulating immune complexes suggested that the vasculitis was a direct consequence of the rheumatoid disease. From these observations retinal vasculitis should probably be sought ...

Rarely, leukocytoclastic vasculitis can result from ischemic colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and cryoglobulinemia. There is no established standard for the treatment of leukocytoclastic vasculitis associated with gastroenterologic diseases. This paper presents three cases of leukoytoclastic vasculitis, each of which is associated with a different gastroenterologic condition: ischemic colit...

Vasculitis is defined by the presence of blood vessel inflammation. It can be observed in a wide variety of settings, which can be broadly grouped as secondary vasculitides, which occur in association with an underlying disease or trigger, or primary vasculitides, in which vasculitis is occurring for as-yet unknown causes. The primary systemic vasculitides comprise a range of disease entities t...

Vasculitis is a rare cause of leg ulceration. It is unclear why severe skin infarction develops in some patients with vasculitis, whereas others have only mild symptoms such as purpura, erythema, or urticaria. A coincidence of vasculitis and hypercoagulability may lead to more extensive thrombotic occlusion and hence explain the occurrence of large ulcers in a subset of patients. Our aim was to...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Cutaneous vasculitis is a devastating extra-articular manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis. The potential consequences of digital vasculitis are necrosis, ischemia, infarction, and eventually gangrene. METHODS A 54-year-old woman with a long history of rheumatoid arthritis developed an acute onset of severe diffuse occlusive cutaneous vasculitis beyond the head of t...

AIMS To determine whether patients with idiopathic retinal vasculitis have altered production of cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S), and whether differences in these variables occur between those who are sensitive (SS) and resistant (SR) to steroids. METHODS 20 patients with retinal vasculitis (off treatment) and 10 control subjects were prospectively recruited. Morning cor...

To our knowledge, bilateral panuveitis and multifocal retinitis/vasculitis have not been described previously in association with leucocytoclastic vasculitis. We describe a patient with bilateral panuveitis associated with multifocal retinitis/vasculitis who also had multiple purpuric, palpable skin lesions. Biopsies of the skin lesions were diagnostic of leucocytoclastic vasculitis. An extensi...

Two cases of systemic antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) vasculitis in the setting of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy type T cell lymphoma are reported. The two patients had fever of unknown origin associated with cutaneous vasculitis and "pulmonary-renal syndrome" with alveolar haemorrhage. Despite anti-infectious treatments, steroids, and chemother...

We describe a patient with scleroderma (CREST syndrome) and central nervous system vasculitis. While angiography demonstrated segmental symmetrical arterial narrowing characteristic of vasculitis, results of leptomeningeal biopsy were normal. There was no evidence of systemic vasculitis, renal failure, or malignant hypertension previously thought to be required to explain central nervous system...