I had my first apt with consultant in October after a year of being ill,first they said symptoms to wegners ,then symptoms to churg Strauss

[shakeel1]

Then put me on azathioprine now when I ask about diagnosis they just say p-ANCA positive small vessels vasculitis or systemic vasculitis. Should I get them to give me a definite diagnosis as to which it is

[PMRpro]

They probably can't be more definite than they are being. In many autoimmune illnesses the label they give is one which a doctor historically gave to a set of symptoms he had come across. Many autoimmune disorders cause symptoms which overlap between these "names" and as more is found out about them they change the descriptor. It doesn't really make any difference - a vasculitis is a vasculitis like a cake is a cake: there is more that they have in common than is different. The way they are treated often depends on the way you respond to what they try - you can't say it is "right" or "wrong". What they have told you IS a diagnosis - it just doesn't have someone's name attached to it.

[shakeel1]

Don't thank you for that, it was just a bit confusing getting different diagnosis each time I have been

[shakeel1 in reply to shakeel1]

The don't shouldn't have been on the reply ,word search ,does my head in.sorry

[PMRpro in reply to shakeel1]

That's OK, don't worry about it! You can edit your comment you know - there's an edit box, click on it and the post will come up again and you can change anything you want and resubmit it.

[Chris-Bromsgrove]

PMRpro is right; you shouldn't be too worried about an exact diagnosis. Looking on the positive side they have narrowed it down to two fairly similar vasculides which are treated in more or less the same way. The typical initial treatment would normally involve a high dose of Prednisolone and an immune suppressing drug such as Azathioprine if the disease is less severe or Cylophosphamide in more severe cases.