Vasculitides in MRCP

Vasculitides in MRCP

Let me makes this topic a very simple one, you just to know two conditions in this topic- Wegener Granulomatosis and Chrug- Strauss Disease.

Anyway, before we zoom in into these two conditions, I think candidates need to know this topic as a whole, vasculitis just means inflammation of blood vessels with reactive damage to the wall which can lead to downstream ischemia and necrosis.

Classification of vasculitis is depending on the size of vessel involved. You might want to know more about Chapel Hill Classification- either big vessel, medium or small vessel.

However, I do not think you need to know all these conditions- for MRCP candidates- big vessels vasculitis, you need to know Giant cell arteritis, medium size vasculitis- you need to know polyarteritis nodosa and small vessel disease- of course you MUST know Wegener Granulomatosis (WG) and Churg-Strauss Disease ( CS)

I will talk about Giant cell arteritis and polyarteritis nodosa next time and for today, we will put emphasis on WG and CS.

( Wegener Granulomatosis patients usually go to see an ENT surgeon first!!)

Since both involve small vessels, multiple organs can be involved, however, just remember the following similarities and differences between these two conditions.

Both of WG and CS can cause pauci immune glomerulonephritis and the classical finding is cresentric GN on biopsy

Both can be ANCA positive but WG is mainly c-ANCA and CS is mainly p-ANCA
WG patients usually have upper respiratory airway problem and can be misdiagnosed as nasopharygeal carcinoma or tuberculosis.

For CS, patients might present with asthma and usually has eosinophilia.
Yes, you are right, that’s all you need to know!!

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