Vasculitis Center

The Vasculitis Center at the University of Chicago Medicine is the only program in Illinois completely devoted to the care of patients with vasculitis.

What is vasculitis?

Vasculitis is a term used to describe a group of disorders characterized by inflammation of the blood vessels. When blood vessels become inflamed, they can weaken, narrow, or scar, reducing blood flow to vital organs and tissues.

There are various types of vasculitis, each affecting different blood vessels and organs in the body. While the exact cause is often unknown, vasculitis can sometimes result from an autoimmune response where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own blood vessels. Vasculitis can overlap with or be associated with another autoimmune disease or can sometimes be a result of a drug side effect or a toxin. The severity of the condition can range from mild cases that resolve on their own to more critical forms that affect vital organs and can be life-threatening.

What are different types of vasculitis?

Vasculitis can impact vessels of different sizes in really any part of the body. Types of vasculitis can include (but is not limited to): Giant cell arteritis, Takayasu arteritis, Polyarteritis nodosa, Kawasaki disease, Granulomatosis with polyangiitis, Microscopic polyangiitis, Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, Cutaneous vasculitis types, IgA vasculitis, Cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, Urticarial vasculitis, Behcet’s disease, etc. The type of vasculitis depends on clinical presentation, organs involved and size of vessels that are inflamed as well as blood markers, image findings and biopsy results when available.

How does vasculitis present?

Because vasculitis is an inflammation of blood vessels that can affect multiple organs, its symptoms are often nonspecific and can vary widely based on the severity and type of vasculitis. The general symptoms of fatigue, fever, and skin rashes are often present across different forms of vasculitis, but specific organ involvement can lead to distinct manifestations.

Some of the organ-specific manifestations include:

Skin (rashes, nodules)
Eyes (vision issues, blurry vision, eye pain or redness)
Lungs (cough, shortness of breath, coughing up blood)
Kidneys (change in color of urine or frothy urine due to blood or protein in urine, kidney failure)
Gut (abdominal pain or nausea, vomiting blood, diarrhea or bloody stools)
Nervous system (numbness or tingling in extremities, headaches, stroke-like symptoms, seizures)
Heart (chest pain, heart failure, abnormal heart rhythm or arrhythmias)
Joints (joint pain, stiffness, swelling)

How is vasculitis diagnosed?

We have a multidisciplinary group of specialty physicians that aid in the ultimate diagnosis of vasculitis. Our team includes rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology, dermatology, neurology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology and more.

Vasculitis is diagnosed based on your symptoms, medical history along with detailed physical exam, laboratory evaluation (inflammation markers, antibody testing, etc.), imaging and biopsy when possible. The details of these tests will be heavily dependent on type of vasculitis of concern given the constellation of the presenting clinical features.

How should I prepare for my first visit?

At your first visit, we ask you to bring the following:

Previous medical notes, including hospital admission, progress and discharge notes
List of medications
Imaging studies reports and physical discs
Full reports on procedures
Reports on tissue biopsies such as skin, kidney, lung, etc.

How is vasculitis treated?

Treatment and care for patients with vasculitis is driven by a multifocal, multidisciplinary approach. Because there are different types of vasculitis and because any of the vasculitidies can affect multiple organs in your body, therapeutic approach is based on the type and severity of vasculitis as well as organ involvement.

Medications considered for vasculitis are often those that decrease the immune system in order to fight inflammation that has resulted from the vasculitis. Initial and long-term responses and tolerability to medications can vary between patients. For this reason, close monitoring during therapy is key. Our rheumatologists work very closely with experts from different specialties to be able to identify the most effective and safe medications and to provide the most comprehensive care for our patients.

What options are available to participate in vasculitis research?

In addition to providing state-of-art clinical care to patients with vasculitis, our team is devoted to research in vasculitis. We work closely with the Gwen Knapp Center for Lupus and Immunology Research at the University of Chicago, a leading immunology research program focused on integrating basic science, translational and clinical research.

We are also working with industry partners to offer patients the option of enrolling in trials examining promising therapies for vasculitis treatment. Additional non-industry studies, made possible by the multidisciplinary nature of the Vasculitis Center, may also be available to patients.

Located in the heart of Hyde Park on the south side of Chicago, the University of Chicago Medicine and our Vasculitis Center are committed to building a more equitable health care system for our patients.