Can you have IGA and GPA?

[1421Darcey]

Hi

Diagnosed with IGA following a kidney biopsy 2 months again Nose bleeds crusty nose now improved

Asked my consultant if you can have both types and he said no He has never seen or heard of this Asked for ENT to see me and he has done this

Just dropped my steroids to 5 mgs every other day and sadly my rash is returning and blood in the urine has increased

Just had a phone call to attend the hospital now!!

My question is has anybody had both types IVG and. GPA ?

Many thanks

[PMRpro]

I suppose it depends how you look at a/i disease. I look at it as a shop with a load of symptoms on the shelves behind the counter. You go in and the assistant kindly hands you a selection of those symptoms and you go on your merry way to see the doctors and get a label. Sometimes the assistant chucks an odd extra symptom at you as you go out the door and sometimes he tells you there may be something in the post that isn't in stock at present.

In the past many illnesses got their label on the basis of the preponderance of symptoms - often even someone's name for posterity! They didn't have the imaging and lab technology they have now and over the years the names and criteria have changed as they found things they didn't know about. As an example, undifferentiated and mixed connective tissue disease both cover that sort of thing - a load of symptoms that aren't typical enough of one particular disorder to get the label but could be any of a range of things. I think it really happens more than they think - and any doctor who says absolutely categorically "that doesn't happen" is treading on rather thin ice.

If truth were told - I think we all have our own version of a/i disease and that is why we are all that bit different in how we present and respond to treatment. In many cases all that can be done is manage the symptoms and finding the right drug is the key.

You have 1421Darcey syndrome ...

[Grizzly-bear in reply to PMRpro]

Agree with this, none of my symptoms fit neatly into one type of vasculitis, they fit into multiple. My consultant said ultimately the labels don’t matter too much because they all involve the same treatment options so it’s about finding what works best for me to keep all my symptoms under control, which may well be different to what keeps others under control.

Before being diagnosed with vasculitis I was told many times that my diverse health problems were completely unrelated to one another, but they were in fact all the result of vasculitis. It’s worth keeping an open mind in both directions, but from my experience this disease can do a whole host of unpleasant things pretty much everywhere!

[PMRpro in reply to Grizzly-bear]

And there are a few too many doctors who don't think about that - if you don't tick the "right" boxes, they lose interest.

[philtw]

I was diagnosed with PAN when I was 21 in teh 1980's then GPA when I was 51, if you have vasculitis then the prognosis and treatment is virtually the same.