Vasculitis: How Inflammation in Your Blood Vessels Affects Your Health

Blood vessels are the body’s highways, streets, and alleys. They transport blood throughout the body to make sure that tissues and organs receive the oxygen and nutrients. As a result, this helps the whole body function. 

When blood vessels get inflamed (vasculitis), it affects blood flow. You might think of it like a traffic jam. Sometimes, it’s a small fender bender. Other times, it’s a more serious pileup. 

Vasculitis can affect people of all ages and genders. And it can affect any blood vessel in the body. Symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment depend on the cause and location of blood vessel inflammation. Learn more about the causes and symptoms of vasculitis.

What causes vasculitis?

It’s not exactly known why inflammation in the blood vessels occurs. But research has shown that a lot of different things can cause it. Reasons for vasculitis can be broken down into a few buckets, including:

• Infections (like bacteria, fungi, and viruses)

• Autoimmune conditions (like giant cell arteritis)

• Allergic reactions to medications (like sulfonamides)

• Cancer (either from the cancer itself or as a “side effect” of the cancer)

Finding the cause is important because it will help you find the right treatment plan. 

Read more like this

Explore these related articles, suggested for readers like you.

What It’s Really Like to Have Lupus: Here’s How I Found Wholeness and Hope

Treating Pain in Autoimmune Disorders: What Works and What Doesn’t

7 Ways to Improve Your Circulation

View more

What are some risk factors for vasculitis?

Vasculitis can happen to anyone. While this is not a complete list, certain things might increase the risk, including:

• Older age

• Family history of vasculitis

• Smoking

• Use of cocaine, methamphetamines, and/or intravenous (IV) medications

• Personal history of an autoimmune disorder (like rheumatoid arthritis)

• Personal history of hepatitis B or hepatitis C

What are the symptoms of vasculitis?

When blood vessels become inflamed, they have two options: fight or give up. When they fight, they get thicker and narrower and sometimes close off completely. When they give up, they weaken, widen, and sometimes burst. In both cases, blood doesn’t get where it needs to go as easily as it should, if at all.

Vasculitis can affect any blood vessel in the body. And symptoms depend on what area of the body isn’t getting the blood it needs. This can include:

• Skin: Rashes (purple/red spots), ulcers, nodules

• Heart: Chest pain

• Lungs: Shortness of breath, coughing up blood

• Abdomen: Abdominal pain (especially after eating), bloody stools, dark black tar-colored stools

• Kidneys: Worsening kidney function, discolored urine

• Brain: Headache, weakness or numbness of the body (due to stroke)

• Extremities: Pain, neuropathy, loss of color, wrist or foot drop

Vasculitis may cause general symptoms of inflammation, too. These can include:

• Fevers

• Night sweats

• Weight loss

• Loss of appetite

How is vasculitis diagnosed?

To diagnose vasculitis, you and your healthcare provider will look at observed symptoms, physical exam findings, and other tests. Sometimes diagnosis is straightforward. Other times, it’s more challenging. 

Tests to diagnose vasculitis include:

• Blood and urine tests

• Imaging of the blood vessels using a CT, MRI, or angiogram

• Biopsy (taking a small piece of tissue and looking for blood vessel inflammation under a microscope)

Which tests you might need depend on what type of vasculitis you may have. 

How do you treat vasculitis?

Treating vasculitis involves treating the inflammation and whatever is causing it. For example, if an infection causes vasculitis, you would treat the infection. If a medication allergy causes vasculitis, you would stop taking the medication. 

When it comes to inflammation, you may need to take steroids (like prednisone). These are strong anti-inflammatories that stop inflammation. This decreases damage in the blood vessels.

Is vasculitis dangerous?

Sometimes. It depends which blood vessels become inflamed and if blood can get where it needs to go or not. 

For example, giant cell arteritis can cause inflammation of the arteries that supply the eyes, which may result in blindness. On the other hand, leukocytoclastic vasculitis affects small blood vessels in the skin, causing a rash. It goes away on its own or with help from some steroids in most people. Complications are very rare. 

Why trust our experts?

Written by:

Samantha C. Shapiro, MD

Samantha Shapiro, MD, is a board-certified rheumatologist and internist with expertise in autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. She founded the division of rheumatology at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.

Edited by:

Mandy Armitage, MD

Mandy Armitage, MD, has combined her interests in clinical medicine with her passion for education and content development for many years. She served as medical director for the health technology companies HealthLoop (now Get Well) and Doximity.

Our editorial standards

Meet our experts