enthesopathies

If you feel pain and stiffness in your body or have trouble moving around, you might have arthritis. Any disorder that affects the joints is often called arthritis. Joints are places where two bones meet, such as your elbow or knee.

Most types of arthritis can cause joint pain and inflammation (swelling). Over time, a swollen joint can become severely damaged. Some kinds of arthritis can also cause problems in your organs, such as your eyes or skin. Treatment will depend on the type of arthritis you have.

Common types of arthritis include:

• Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis. It's often related to aging or injury.
• Autoimmune arthritis happens when your body's immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake. Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common form of this type of arthritis.
• Juvenile arthritis is a type of arthritis that happens in children.
• Infectious arthritis is an infection that has spread from another part of your body to the joint. Reactive arthritis is one type.
• Psoriatic arthritis affects people with psoriasis (itchy or sore scaly red and white skin patches).
• Gout is a painful type of arthritis that happens when too much uric acid builds up in your body. It often starts in the big toe. Other joints can also be affected.
• Ankylosing spondylitis is a type of arthritis of the spine that can cause stiffness and make it difficult to move and bend.

Pain, redness, warmth, and joint inflammation are common arthritis symptoms. You may not be able to move your joint as well as it should. Other symptoms could include fever, weight loss, breathing difficulties, or a rash.

Symptoms often get worse as you age. Some symptoms of arthritis may be signs of other illnesses.

A few things that might increase your chance of getting arthritis include:

• Family history. You may be more likely to get certain types of arthritis if a member of your family has the disorder.
• Age. The risk of getting many types of arthritis increases with age.
• Sex. Certain types of arthritis are more common in women, while other types are more common in men.

Other factors that might increase your risk of getting arthritis include having a previous joint injury, obesity, or lupus.

To find out if you have arthritis, your health care provider may:

• Ask you about your medical history, including your symptoms.
• Do a physical exam.
• Order blood tests or take x-rays.

Your provider may refer you to a rheumatologist (a doctor who specializes in arthritis care) for tests, diagnosis, and care.

Treatment depends on the type of arthritis you have. It may include medicine or surgery. Your provider will work with you to improve your symptoms and quality of life.

A few ways to help manage your symptoms include:

• Hot or cold packs
• Relaxation techniques
• Use of splints, braces, and/or assistive devices

NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Lupus is a chronic (long-lasting) type of autoimmune disease.Autoimmune diseases happen when your immune system attacks healthy cells and tissues by mistake. This attack causes inflammation. It can also damage many parts of the body, including the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, and brain.

There are several types of lupus:

• Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most common type. It can be mild or severe and can affect many parts of the body.
• Cutaneous lupus affects the skin. It causes a rash or sores, usually after your skin is exposed to sunlight. The two major types of cutaneous lupus are discoid lupus and subacute cutaneous lupus.
• Drug-induced lupus is caused by a reaction to some medicines. The symptoms may start 3 to 6 months after starting the medicine. The symptoms usually go away when you stop taking the medicine.
• Neonatal lupus, which is rare, affects newborns. It is caused by certain antibodies that are passed from the pregnant parent to the baby.

The cause of lupus is unknown. Researchers are studying what might cause or trigger the disease, such as:

• Genetics
• Environmental factors, such as viral infections, sunlight, certain medicines, and smoking
• Problems with the immune system

Anyone can get lupus, but women get it much more often than men.

Lupus is more common in African Americans than in White people. It is also more common in people of American Indian and Asian descent. African American and Hispanic women are more likely to have severe forms of lupus.

Lupus can have many symptoms, and they differ from person to person. Some of the more common ones are:

• Arthritis, causing painful and swollen joints and morning stiffness
• Fever
• Fatigue or feeling tired often
• Red rashes, most often on the face (also called the "butterfly rash")
• Chest pain when taking a deep breath
• Hair loss
• Pale or purple fingers or toes, from cold and stress (Raynaud phenomenon)
• Sensitivity to the sun
• Swelling in legs or around eyes
• Mouth ulcers
• Swollen glands
• Headache and dizziness
• Confusion and memory problems

Symptoms may come and go. When you are having symptoms, it is called a flare. Flares can range from mild to severe. New symptoms may appear at any time.

Lupus causes inflammation throughout your body. This can cause problems in your organs, including:

• Kidney damage (lupus nephritis).
• Heart problems, including inflammation in the heart (myocarditis), heart valves, or lining of the heart muscle (pericarditis).
• Inflammation of blood vessels (vasculitis).
• Blood clots
• Inflammation of the tissue that surrounds the lungs (pleurisy). This can make it painful to breathe.

Some people with lupus may be more likely to develop other conditions, such as coronary artery disease (CAD) and atherosclerosis.

There is no specific test for lupus, and it's often mistaken for other diseases that cause similar symptoms. So it may take a while to get a diagnosis. To find out if you have lupus, your health care provider:

• Will ask about your symptoms, medical history, and family health history
• Will do a complete physical exam
• May order blood tests, such as ANA (antinuclear antibody), antibodies, complete blood count, and complement tests
• May order other tests, such as urine tests
• May do biopsies:
  • Skin biopsy (looking at skin samples under a microscope)
  • Kidney biopsy (looking at tissue from your kidney under a microscope)

There is no cure for lupus, but medicines and lifestyle changes can help control it.

People with lupus often need to see different providers. You will most likely have a primary care provider and a rheumatologist (a doctor who specializes in diseases of the joints and muscles). Which other specialists you will depend on how lupus affects your body. For example, if lupus is damaging your heart or blood vessels, you would see a cardiologist (a doctor who specializes in heart diseases).

Your primary care provider should coordinate care between all of your other providers and treat other problems as they come up. You and your primary care provider will develop a treatment plan to fit your needs. You will both review the plan often to make sure that it is working. You should report new symptoms to your provider right away so that your treatment plan can be changed, if needed.

The goals of a treatment plan are to:

• Prevent flares
• Treat flares when they occur
• Reduce organ damage and other problems
• Improve your quality of life

Treatments may include drugs to:

• Reduce fever, swelling, and pain
• Reduce inflammation in your body
• Prevent or reduce flares
• Reduce or prevent damage to joints
• Suppress (lower) the activity of your immune system

Besides taking medicines for lupus, you may need to take medicines for problems that are related to lupus such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or infection.

Alternative and complementary therapies are therapies that are not part of standard treatments. Some people try alternative and complementary therapies to improve their lupus symptoms. But research has not clearly shown whether these treatments may help or treat lupus. Talk to your provider before trying any new treatments.

It is important to take an active role in your treatment. It helps to learn more about lupus - being able to spot the warning signs of a flare can help you prevent the flare or make the symptoms less severe.

It is also important to find ways to cope with the stress of having lupus. Exercising and finding ways to relax may make it easier for you to cope. A good support system can also help.

NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a form of arthritis that causes pain, swelling, and stiffness in your joints. RA is an autoimmune disease. Although it is most common in the wrist and fingers, this disease can cause your immune system to attack any joint tissue. The inflammation (swelling) that comes with RA can also affect other body parts. Inflammation could cause medical issues in your eyes, skin, heart, nerves, blood, or lungs.

RA differs from osteoarthritis, a common arthritis that often comes with age. RA affects the lining of your joints and damages the tissue that covers the ends of the bones in a joint. Eventually, this might cause your joints to not work as well.

There is no cure for RA, but early treatment can help you manage symptoms, reduce joint damage, and lead a productive life.

Rheumatoid arthritis can happen at any age, but your risk increases as you become an older adult. Your chance of developing RA can also increase if:

• You're a woman. Women are more likely to get RA than men.
• You have a family history. If a member of your family has RA, you're more likely to get the disease.
• You're a smoker.Smoking over a long period of time increases your risk of getting RA and how serious the disease can be.
• You have other medical conditions that may increase your risk of getting RA. These include obesity, gum disease, and lung disease.

No one knows what causes rheumatoid arthritis. A few things that might play a part in getting RA include:

• Your genes are parts of DNA in your cells that are passed down from your parents. Certain genes may increase your risk of getting rheumatoid arthritis, but not everyone with these genes gets RA.
• The environment, which includes things such as cigarette smoke, sometimes triggers RA symptoms.
• Hormones are chemical messengers in your bloodstream that control the actions of certain cells or organs. Researchers think that sex hormones might play a role in getting RA. Women are more likely to develop the disease, and RA symptoms may change during and after pregnancy.

Your immune system may start turning against your body's joints and tissues years before you notice any symptoms of RA. The changes from this type of immune malfunction usually settle in your joints.

RA affects people differently. You might have the disease for only a short time, or your symptoms might come and go. The severe form can be chronic (long-lasting) and may last a lifetime.

Symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis may include:

• Joint pain or stiffness when moving. This is usually worse in the morning or after inactivity. RA usually affects both joints. If one of your hands or knees is affected, so is the other.
• Joint tenderness, redness, and warmth.
• Joint swelling may make daily activities hard. These could include things such as combing your hair, buttoning your clothes, or bending your knees.
• Fatigue, fever, and a loss of appetite.
• Hard bumps (rheumatoid nodules) under your skin near the joints.

There's no single test for rheumatoid arthritis. The disease develops over time. At first, you may only have a few symptoms, making it hard to diagnose RA in its early stages. To find out if you have RA, your health care provider may:

• Ask about your medical history, including your symptoms.
• Ask about your family health history, including relatives who have had RA.
• Do a physical exam, which includes checking your joints, looking for rashes or nodules, and listening to your chest for signs of inflammation in your lungs.
• Order blood tests or imaging studies (x-ray or ultrasound) to make sure other health conditions aren't causing your symptoms since they may be like other types of arthritis and joint conditions.

Your provider may refer you to a rheumatologist (a doctor who specializes in arthritis care) for tests, diagnosis, and care.

There is no cure for RA, but early treatment can help prevent your symptoms from getting worse and damaging your joints. Treatment can include medicine, lifestyle changes, and surgery. These may slow or stop joint damage and reduce pain and swelling.

Your provider may use a combination of treatments. Your treatment may change based on your symptoms.

You can help manage your RA symptoms if you:

• Are physically active
• Keep a healthy weight
• Avoid injuries to your joints
• Avoid activities that have repetitive motions, like bending your knee over and over
• Stop smoking, or don't start

NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Your immune system protects you from disease and infection by attacking germs that get into your body, such as viruses and bacteria. Your immune system can tell that the germs aren't part of you, so it destroys them. If you have an autoimmune disease, your immune system attacks the healthy cells of your organs and tissues by mistake.

There are more than 80 types of autoimmune diseases. They can affect almost any part of your body. For example, alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease of the skin that causes hair loss. Autoimmune hepatitis affects the liver. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks the pancreas. And in rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system can attack many parts of the body, including the joints, lungs, and eyes.

No one is sure why autoimmune diseases happen. But you can't catch them from other people.

Autoimmune diseases do tend to run in families, which means that certain genes may make some people more likely to develop a problem. Viruses, certain chemicals, and other things in the environment may trigger an autoimmune disease if you already have the genes for it.

Millions of Americans of all ages have autoimmune diseases. Women develop many types of autoimmune diseases much more often than men. And if you have one autoimmune disease, you are more likely to get another.

The symptoms of an autoimmune disease depend on the part of your body that's affected. Many types of autoimmune diseases cause redness, swelling, heat, and pain, which are the signs and symptoms of inflammation. But other illnesses can cause the same symptoms.

The symptoms of autoimmune diseases can come and go. During a flare-up, your symptoms may get severe for a while. Later on, you may have a remission, which means that your symptoms get better or disappear for a period of time.

Doctors often have a hard time diagnosing autoimmune diseases. There's usually not a specific test to show whether you have a certain autoimmune disease. And the symptoms can be confusing. That's because many autoimmune diseases have similar symptoms. And some symptoms, such as muscle aches, are common in many other illnesses. So it can take a long time and some visits to different types of doctors to get a diagnosis.

To help your doctor find out if an autoimmune disease is causing your symptoms,:

• Learn about the health conditions in your family history. What health problems did your grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins have? Write down what you learn and share it with your doctor.
• Keep track of your symptoms, including how long they last and what makes them better or worse. Share your notes with your doctor.
• See a specialist who deals with the symptoms that bother you most. For example, if you have rash, see a dermatologist (skin doctor).

The treatment depends on the disease. In most cases, the goal of treatment is to suppress (slow down) your immune system, and ease swelling, redness, and pain from inflammation. Your doctor may give you corticosteroids or other medicines to help you feel better. For some diseases, you may need treatment for the rest of your life.

Every pregnancy has some risk of problems, but there are certain conditions and health issues that can raise that risk, such as:

• A health condition you had before you got pregnant
• A health condition you develop during pregnancy
• A pregnancy with more than one baby
• A health problem that happened during a previous pregnancy and could happen again
• Substance use during pregnancy
• Being over age 35

Any of these can affect your health, the health of your baby, or both.

If you have a chronic condition, you should talk to your health care provider about how to minimize your risk before you get pregnant. Once you are pregnant, you may need a health care team to monitor your pregnancy. Some common conditions that can complicate a pregnancy include:

• High blood pressure
• Kidney problems
• Autoimmune diseases
• Obesity
• HIV
• Cancer
• Infections

Other conditions that may make pregnancy risky can develop during pregnancy - for example, gestational diabetes and Rh incompatibility. Good prenatal care can help detect and treat them.

Some symptoms, such as nausea, back pain, and fatigue, are common during pregnancy. Sometimes it is hard to know what is normal. Call your health care provider if something is bothering or worrying you.

Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. Inflammation is swelling that happens when tissues of the body are injured or infected. Inflammation can damage organs.

There are different types of hepatitis. One type, hepatitis C, is caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Hepatitis C can range from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong illness.

Hepatitis C can be acute or chronic:

• Acute hepatitis C is a short-term infection. The symptoms can last up to 6 months. Sometimes your body is able to fight off the infection and the virus goes away. But for most people, an acute infection leads to chronic infection.
• Chronic hepatitis C is a long-lasting infection. If it is not treated, it can last for a lifetime and cause serious health problems, including liver damage, cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), liver cancer, and even death.

Hepatitis C spreads through contact with the blood of someone who has HCV. This contact may be through:

• Sharing drug needles or other drug materials with someone who has HCV. In the United States, this is the most common way that people get hepatitis C.
• Getting an accidental stick with a needle that was used on someone who has HCV. This can happen in health care settings.
• Being tattooed or pierced with tools or inks that were not sterilized after being used on someone who has HCV.
• Having contact with the blood or open sores of someone who has HCV.
• Sharing personal care items that may have come in contact with another person's blood, such as razors or toothbrushes.
• Being born to a mother with HCV.
• Having unprotected sex with someone who has HCV.

Before 1992, hepatitis C was also commonly spread through blood transfusions and organ transplants. Since then, there has been routine testing of the U.S. blood supply for HCV. It is now very rare for someone to get HCV this way.

You are more likely to get hepatitis C if you:

• Have injected drugs
• Had a blood transfusion or organ transplant before July 1992
• Have hemophilia and received clotting factor before 1987
• Have been on kidney dialysis
• Have been in contact with blood or infected needles at work
• Have had tattoos or body piercings
• Have worked or lived in a prison
• Were born to a mother with hepatitis C
• Have HIV
• Have had more than one sex partner in the last 6 months
• Have had a sexually transmitted infection (STI)
• Are a man who has had sex with men (MSM)

If you are at high risk for hepatitis C, your health care provider will likely recommend that you get tested for it.

Most people with hepatitis C have no symptoms. Some people with acute hepatitis C do have symptoms within 1 to 3 months after they are exposed to the virus. These symptoms may include:

• Dark yellow urine
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Gray- or clay-colored stools
• Joint pain
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Pain in your abdomen (belly)
• Jaundice (yellowish eyes and skin)

If you have chronic hepatitis C, you probably will not have symptoms until it causes complications. This can happen decades after you were infected. For this reason, hepatitis C screening is important, even if you have no symptoms.

Without treatment, hepatitis C may lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer. Early diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C can prevent these complications.

Providers diagnose hepatitis C based on your medical history, a physical exam, and blood tests.

If you do have hepatitis C, you may need additional tests to check for liver damage. These tests may include other blood tests, an ultrasound of the liver, and a liver biopsy.

Treatment for hepatitis C is with antiviral medicines. They can cure the disease in most cases.

If you have acute hepatitis C, your provider may wait to see if your infection becomes chronic before starting treatment.

If your hepatitis C causes cirrhosis, you should see a doctor who specializes in liver diseases. Treatments for health problems related to cirrhosis include medicines, surgery, and other medical procedures. If your hepatitis C leads to liver failure or liver cancer, you may need a liver transplant.

There is no vaccine for hepatitis C. But you can help protect yourself from hepatitis C infection by:

• Not sharing drug needles or other drug materials.
• Wearing gloves if you have to touch another person's blood or open sores.
• Making sure your tattoo artist or body piercer uses sterile tools and unopened ink.
• Not sharing personal items such toothbrushes, razors, or nail clippers.
• Using a latex condom during sex. If your or your partner is allergic to latex, you can use polyurethane condoms.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Having HIV weakens your body's immune system. It destroys the white blood cells that fight infection. This puts you at risk for opportunistic infections (OIs). OIs are serious infections that take advantage of your weak immune system. These infections are less common and less severe in healthy people.

People who have AIDS, the most severe stage of HIV infection, have badly damaged immune systems. This puts them especially at risk for OIs. Getting certain OIs is one of the ways that people can get diagnosed with AIDS.

OIs are becoming less common in people with HIV because of effective HIV medicines. But some people with HIV still develop OIs for different reasons:

• They may not know they have HIV, so they aren't getting treatment for it
• They know that they have HIV but are not taking treatment
• Their HIV treatment may not be working properly

There are many types of OIs:

• Bacterial infections, including tuberculosis, Salmonella infection"/>, and Mycobacterium avium complex"/> (MAC)
• Viral infections, such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) and herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1)
• Fungal infections, like yeast infections, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia"/> (PCP), and histoplasmosis
• Parasitic infections, such as cryptosporidiosis and toxoplasmosis

Having HIV can make infections harder to treat. People with HIV are also more likely to have complications from common illnesses such as the flu.

If you develop an OI, there are treatments available such as antiviral, antibiotic, and antifungal drugs. The type of medicine your health care provider prescribes will depend on which OI you have.

After the OI has been successfully treated, you may still need to take the same medicine or another medicine to prevent the OI from coming back.

The best way to prevent OIs infections is by taking your HIV medicines. Other steps you can take to help prevent OIs include:

• Avoiding exposure to contaminated food and water:
  • Don't undercooked eggs, unpasteurized dairy products or fruit juices, or raw seed sprouts
  • Don't drink water directly from a lake or river
• Talking to your provider about medicines and vaccines that prevent certain OIs
• Preventing exposure to other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) by using condoms every time you have sex
• Washing your hands thoroughly with warm, soapy water after any contact with human or animal feces (poop)
• Not sharing needles, syringes, or other drug injection equipment

Most kinds of arthritis cause pain and swelling in your joints. Joints are places where two bones meet, such as your elbow or knee. Infectious arthritis is an infection in the joint. The infection comes from a bacterial, viral, or fungal infection that spreads from another part of the body. Symptoms of infectious arthritis include:

• Intense pain in the joint
• Joint redness and swelling
• Chills and fever
• Inability to move the area with the infected joint

One type of infectious arthritis is reactive arthritis. The reaction is to an infection somewhere else in your body. The joint is usually the knee, ankle, or toe. Sometimes, reactive arthritis is set off by an infection in the bladder, or in the urethra, which carries urine out of the body. In women, an infection in the vagina can cause the reaction. For both men and women, it can start with bacteria passed on during sex. Another form of reactive arthritis starts with eating food or handling something that has bacteria on it.

To diagnose infectious arthritis, your health care provider may do tests of your blood, urine, and joint fluid. Treatment includes medicines and sometimes surgery.

Scleroderma means "hard skin." It's the name of an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation and thickening in the skin and other areas of the body. This inflammation causes you to have areas of tight, hard skin. Scleroderma may affect just one area of your body, or it can affect many systems in your body.

There are two main types of scleroderma:

• Localized scleroderma only affects your skin and the muscles and tissues just under your skin.
• Systemic scleroderma, which is also called systemic sclerosis, is a more serious type. It affects many parts of your body and can damage your blood vessels and internal organs, such as your heart, lungs, and kidneys.

The exact cause of scleroderma is unknown. Researchers think that several factors may play a part in causing the disease:

• Your genetics. Certain genes can increase the chance that you will develop scleroderma. They may also play a role in which the type of scleroderma you have. Scleroderma is not passed from parent to child, but you are more likely to develop it if a close relative has it.
• Your environment. Exposure to certain things in the environment, such as viruses or chemicals, may trigger scleroderma.
• Immune system changes. When your immune system changes, it can trigger your cells to make too much collagen in the body. Too much collagen causes patches of tight, hard skin.
• Hormones. Hormonal or immune system differences between women and men might play a part in the disease.

Anyone can get scleroderma, but certain factors may make you more likely to develop it:

• Your sex. Scleroderma is more common in women than in men.
• Your age. The disease usually appears between the ages of 30 and 50.
• Your race. Scleroderma can affect people of all races and ethnic groups, but the disease can affect African Americans more severely.

The symptoms of scleroderma are different for each person, depending on the type of scleroderma you have:

• Localized scleroderma usually causes patches of thick, hard skin in one of two patterns:
  • Patches in firm, oval shapes that stay in one area or spread to other areas of skin. This is called morphea.
  • Lines of thickened or different colored skin that run down your arm, leg, and, rarely, on the forehead. This is called linear scleroderma.
• Systemic scleroderma can cause problems with your internal organs as well as your skin. It can cause symptoms such as:
  • Thick, tight skin on your fingers
  • Fatigue
  • Raynaud's phenomenon, a narrowing of blood vessels in the hands or feet
  • Damage to your internal organs, including your digestive system, lungs, kidneys, and heart

There is no single test for scleroderma. The symptoms can vary from person to person and can be similar to those of other diseases. This can make scleroderma hard to diagnose.

To find out if you have scleroderma, your health care provider:

• Will ask about your symptoms and medical history
• Will do a physical exam
• May order blood tests, including an ANA (antinuclear antibody) test
• May do a skin biopsy
• May do other tests, such as imaging tests, to check for organ damage

There is no cure for scleroderma, but treatments can help control your symptoms and limit damage. The treatments may include:

• Medicines to help decrease swelling, manage pain, control other symptoms, and prevent complications.
• Physical or occupational therapy to help with pain, improve muscle strength, and teach you ways to help with daily living.
• Regular dental care, because scleroderma can make your mouth dry and damage connective tissues in your mouth. These problems can speed up tooth decay and cause your teeth to become loose.

You may need to see specialists to help treat your disease. Many people with scleroderma will see a rheumatologist. This is a doctor who specializes in rheumatic diseases such as arthritis and other inflammatory or autoimmune disorders. Dermatologists, who specialize in conditions of the skin, hair, and nails, may also play an important role in treating the disease. And if you have organ damage, you may need to see other specialists.

You can also help manage some of your symptoms, for example by:

• Dressing warm and avoiding cold or wet environments
• Quitting smoking (if you smoke)
• Putting on sunscreen before you go outdoors
• Using moisturizers on your skin to help lessen stiffness
• Avoiding hot baths and showers, harsh soaps, and household cleaners
• Getting regular physical activity

NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Vasculitis is an inflammation of the blood vessels. It happens when the body's immune system attacks the blood vessel by mistake. It can happen because of an infection, a medicine, or another disease. The cause is often unknown.

Vasculitis can affect arteries, veins and capillaries. Arteries are vessels that carry blood from the heart to the body's organs. Veins are the vessels that carry blood back to the heart. Capillaries are tiny blood vessels that connect the small arteries and veins.

When a blood vessel becomes inflamed, it can:

• Narrow, making it more difficult for blood to get through.
• Close off completely so that blood can't get through.
• Stretch and weaken so much that it bulges. The bulge is called an aneurysm. If it bursts, it can cause dangerous bleeding inside the body.

Symptoms of vasculitis can vary, but usually include fever, swelling and a general sense of feeling ill. The main goal of treatment is to stop the inflammation. Steroids and other medicines to stop inflammation are often helpful.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute