Is the diagnosis of systemic vasculitis just... - Vasculitis UK
Is the diagnosis of systemic vasculitis just a prelude to the real name of the illness?
See if this helps, or hinders !!!
Systemic vasculitis refers to any of the vasculitides which affects the various systems/organs of the body, eg Wegener's (GPA) where the kidneys or lungs etc can be involved. I believe they use the word "systemic" to differentiate between vasculitis which is related to such things as infection, drugs etc.
So I guess the simply answer is that if you have been diagnosed with "systemic vasculitis" the tests aren't yet conclusive for which one.
Maybe someone will give a better description, but I hope that helps.
PatriciaAnn
Thank you Patricia Ann, It is my 34 year old daughter who has the vasculitis. I am her Mum but I would prefer to be doing the suffering rather than her. You have helped so much. I am grateful. I live in Australia and we do not have a Vasculitis Foundation to which to refer due to the lack of someone to run it. I feel we need someone with medical credentials to do that, or I would do it myself. I am 64, retired teacher, married with grandchildren. I also have 6 chronic diseases myself so I feel that I am stretched. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my query.
It might help you to read through the Vasculitis UK Route Map online (type into the search engine 'vasculitis uk route map'). This will explain all about the different types of vasculitis as well as give lots of other pieces of useful information. Have a look at the photo on page 61, too, as this shows black toes which I believe you said your daughter had. I hope it helps!
Ayla
Systemic Vasculitis, as far as I am aware, means that it is in all systems of the body, in other words, it is widespread, that is my understanding of it and I was diagonised about 5 years ago
There's quite a good Wiki here that explains a number of confusing and/or hard to understand medical terms :
As everyone has said, systemic basically means affecting the whole body or a number of organs or tissues.
Strictly speaking there are non-systemic, or localised, forms of Vasculitis that might just affect the skin for instance. These are generally not as severe or life threatening like the systemic forms. I imagine for a milder, localised Vasculitits you might not get a definitive "type". But given that you have a diagnosis of systemic Vasculitis then I would hope that they will be able to come up with a more accurate definition.
On the positive side, the treatment should be pretty much the same. But having a definitive type might allow your doctors to be watchful for further developments and symptoms before any damage is done.
My diagnosis is systemic vasculitis but in my case vasculitis is secondary as a result of another auto immune disease. I am not expecting an exact type to be diagnosed as my understanding is that when there is another cause, in my case sjogrens syndrome, it is a systemic form rather than a specific type.
