Sorry if this is a "silly" question

[Brooke]

Is vasculitis the same thing as Wegener's Disease? Are there multiple forms of vasculitis? I know that it is an inflamation of the blood vessels.

[Sangye]

Brooke-- not a silly question! There are several types of vasculitis. Wegs is one type. The different types affect different size blood vessels and have preferences for what parts of the body they affect.

Here's info from JHU's website about the different forms.

[Brooke]

Thanks Sangye~ I was reading a post on facebook where a 10 year old boy was playing in gym class and all of a sudden got a bad headache and collapsed. After some tests, they found out he had a stroke and had vasculitis. He survived after having to take steroids and chemo drugs.
Scary!

[jola57]

Yes, that is totaly possible. Blood clots, strokes, heart attacks, seisures can happen to us any time because of the granulomas inflaming the blood vessels. Glad that he was ok.

[Brooke]

Do heart attacks and strokes happen frequently with Wegener's? I know it sounds like a lot of us have had blood clots. Stroke and heart attack I was not aware of so much.

[Sangye]

I don't think they're common. Both can happen as a direct result of Wegs. Pred predisposes one to arteriosclerosis which can cause stroke or heart attack.

Heart damage due to Wegs is silent, though. Make sure your doc orders an annual echocardiogram to keep an eye on your heart.

[Brooke]

Thanks Sangye - I did have an echocardiogram at Mayo clinic in Sept 2009. I will make sure I get one yearly.

[elephant]

Sangye I had my echo cardiogram a few months ago. For about 20 years I had on/off chest pain and no one new what was going on....test after test ( EKG, stress test, echocardiogram) and finally I know it is the WG.

[Sangye]

Elephant, what did they find wrong with your heart?

[elephant]

They didn't find anything. The only thing I have is high cholesterol...I will not take any medicine for that. I even had a CT of my arteries to see if I had calcium build up. So my educated guess is that is was the WG.