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© Dirk Biddle
The term vasculitis refers to the inflammation of blood or lymph vessels. Directly synonymous is the term angiitis. A particular form - literally meaning “inflammation of the arteries” - is arteritis. The group of disorders broadly classified as vasculitis conditions are known in the plural as the vasculitides (pronounced vas.que.lit.eye.deez).
Vasculitis can affect either the lining (endothelium) or the wall of an artery or vein. It may be defined by the presence of white blood cells (leucocytes) in the blood vessel wall, with consequent inflammatory damage to the wall (mural) structures. The swelling caused by reactive inflammation can lead to decreased blood flow (ischemia), resulting in localised areas of oxygen deficit ( hypoxia), or to a complete obstruction, leading to areas of tissue death (necrosis) in some or all of an organ (infarction). Inflammatory damage may also weaken the blood vessel wall causing an abnormal dilation (aneurysm), which may in turn rupture and result in bleeding through the weakened blood vessel wall (haemorrhage).
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