Vasculitis

[Westley]

I have very painful arthritis in my shoulder and spine, I'm told vasculitis causes this has anyone else had this please?

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

I think we have said before you'd be better asking your question on the Vasculitis forum [as you have ANCA] according to a previous post].

see here - healthunlocked.com/vasculit...

Vasculitis can causes joint pain and swelling - but that's not quite the same as arthritis [osteo or otherwise] even though they are lumped under same banner - this is from versusarthritis site -

versusarthritis.org/about-a...

[PMRpro Ambassador]

A few questions:

1, Who told you vasculitis causes arthritis?

2, What sort of arthritis do you have in your shoulder? Is it just a very painful shoulder that someone says is arthritis or has a rheumatologist diagnosed you with an inflammatory arthritis?

3, Do you mean does ANCA positive vasculitis cause joint problems?

This may answer some of your questions:

ancavasculitisnews.com/anca....

and it says

"Inflammation in muscles and joints may be confused with other inflammatory conditions. These symptoms usually develop later and include a shooting pain in the muscles (myalgia) and joints (arthralgia), as well as intense muscle loss in the hands and/or feet."

Rheumatoid vasculitis is sometimes found alongside rheumatoid arthritis but I;m not sure you can say that the vasculitis causes the arthritis or vice versa.

[Avadip12 in reply to PMRpro]

was he meaning you have arteritis . Which is inflammation of the arteries?

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Avadip12]

Good for spotting that!!!! Didn't occur to me ... I should know - even healthcare professionals get that mixed up!!!!!

[Blossom20 in reply to PMRpro]

So is arteritis another term for pmr?As is vasculitis?

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Blossom20]

No. Arteritis means inflamed arteries, Vasculitis is inflamed blood vessels in general. PMR is a specific term for a disorder with a set of symptoms and various underlying causes for them. It is thought vasculitis underlies the one we usually mean here that is managed with pred.

[Blossom20 in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks Pro. Thats a great definition of pmr . But in pmr its the arteries that are inflamed? So it should be arteritis rather than vasculitis....the veins aren't inflamed...( sorry for a very pedantic question!)

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Blossom20]

It depends - in GCA and LVV it is arteries that are inflamed, they can be seen in imaging and those patients may have PMR symptoms too. But in many PMR patients all that can be seen is the areas of ligaments and tendons around joints that are inflamed but not any specific blood vessels, arterieis, capillaries or veins. In GCA the inflammation is generally seen in a particular layer of the arterial wall and not in veins which don't have the same structure.

[Nextoneplease in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you for this PMRpro 😊 I do like to know (as far as possible) what’s actually happening. I find that being able to visualise things helps me to deal with them - I’d guess many of us are like this, but are not given the requisite information by our doctors x

[Blossom20 in reply to PMRpro]

Oh, interesting, that's just what it feels like - the tissue around the joints, the tendons, ligaments. I thought the walls of the blood vessels were the parts that were inflamed. Maybe they just can't see them on the scan?

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Blossom20]

In GCA and LVV it is, not so much in "just" PMR.

The PET-CT shows up the tissues affected in PMR

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

has pretty pictures - the yellow highlights are where they found signs of inflammation which take up more of the radioactive marker than normal tissue