Classification and histopathologic specificity of systemic vasculitis

Abstract

Vasculitis is a disease of antiquity, predating the description of arteriosclerosis [1, 2]. Vasculitis has a deceptively simple definition — inflammation, often with necrosis and occlusive changes of the blood vessels — but its clinical manifestations are diverse and complex. Vasculitis may be generalized or localized. It may occur de novo as an essential disorder of the blood vessels (primary vasculitis), or it may be associated with a variety of different underlying diseases (secondary vasculitis). The clinical spectrum of vasculitides therefore represents one of the most interesting and perplexing group of diseases in medicine. In the absence of pathognomonic clinical features and laboratory tests, the diagnosis of vasculitis still relies heavily on clinicopathologic correlation for the correct interpretation of biopsies because histologic changes may not be specific in any given case and they often overlap in different vasculitides [3–5].