What is the cause of small vessel vasculitis?

Blood vessels are spread throughout our body. If there is any disease in the blood vessels, it will pose a huge threat to our health. The causes of small vessel vasculitis are not fully understood and only a few can be determined. Small vessel vasculitis can be divided into several types, such as allergic leukocytoclastic vasculitis, polyarteritis nodosa, thrombotic vasculitis, etc. These vasculitis will have a series of impacts on the health of blood vessels, so the symptoms will be more complicated and have no directional characteristics. After vasculitis, the body will show some discomfort to some extent. Any discomfort should be checked in time to avoid delaying treatment of the disease.

Causes

A few causes are more clear, such as serum sickness, drug allergy and infection. Hepatitis B virus has been confirmed to be the cause of various vasculitis; Chinese cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus, etc. can also cause vasculitis.

Classification

1. Allergic leukocytoclastic (necrotizing) vasculitis

A group of vasculitic diseases caused by allergies due to various causes, mainly affecting small blood vessels, especially post-capillary veins. It is characterized by fibrin deposition, degeneration and necrosis in the vessel wall and surrounding tissues, infiltration of a large number of neutrophils and nuclear fragmentation into nuclear dust.

The onset is usually acute, often with skin lesions of varying forms. The main ones include allergic cutaneous vasculitis, allergic systemic vasculitis, allergic purpura, hypocomplementary (urticarial) vasculitis, etc.

2. Polyarteritis nodosa

A nongranulomatous vasculitis characterized by segmental inflammation and necrosis of medium and small muscular arteries. It can affect tissues, organs and blood vessels throughout the body, and the clinical manifestations are complex and non-specific.

The main ones include systemic polyarteritis nodosa, benign cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa, infantile polyarteritis nodosa, etc.

3. Thrombotic vasculitis

It mainly affects medium and small arteries and veins, is characterized by intravascular thrombosis, and presents different clinical manifestations.

The main ones include thromboangiitis obliterans, thrombophlebitis, malignant atrophic papulosis, livedo reticularis vasculitis, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, etc.