Vasculitis - Diagnosis
How was your vasculitis diagnosed?
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How is vasculitis diagnosed?
Laboratory testing of blood or body fluids in a patient with active vasculitis generally indicates inflammation in the body. Depending on the degree of organ involvement, a variety of organ function tests can be abnormal.
The diagnosis of vasculitis is definitively established after a biopsy of involved tissue demonstrates the pattern of blood vessel inflammation. Examples of tissues used for biopsy include skin, sinuses, lung, nerve, and kidney. Depending upon the situation, an alternative to biopsy can be an x-ray test of the blood vessels called an angiogram, which can demonstrate characteristic patterns of inflammation in affected blood vessels.
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I'm a 22 year old female who always had clear skin. Two years ago I moved to DC and I started swelling really bad all of a sudden. Since I'm also anaphylactic I thought it was just from the takeout I eat all the time. Maybe they make the chicken and the shrimp in the same pan? I was on a heavy Benadryl regimen. It started with my fingertips n toes tingling and burning. Then my salivary glands were swollen for 3 weeks. Imagine feeling as if you were sucking on a lemon for 3 weeks straight. I was seeing my primary doctor, and allergist, and ENT, and a dermatologist at the same time and it took them all a whole year to finally diagnose me with vasculitis. After of course a Lupus scare (my grandmother has it). I'm in remission but I'm now cursed with the scars all over my face n body. People stare, people wonder, people speculate. But no one has any idea what I go through every day. No amount of scrubbing or creams will make this go away and now it's something I have to live with.
I am 30. I had pain in my legs and a rash on my upper legs. A few days later, my legs, feet, arms, hands, palms were swollen and the rash spread to all of the above limbs. The soles of my feet started to itch like crazy, and my legs just a little bit. I ended up in hospital. Received Steroids and Cortisone. Had a skin biopsy done. They diagnosed me last Thursday with Urticarial Vasculitis. They don't know what causes it and they told me they probably never will. It is difficult to treat because of all the side effects of the medications. I take two antihistamine tablets in the morning and two at night. By end of December they are going to stop my meds and see if I have an outbreak again. The episode went on for a week before I got better. It is not nice...
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