Autoanticuerpos y vasculitis sistémicas

Abstract

The term vasculitis includes a heterogeneous group of diseases that have in common inflammatory injury of the blood vessels. The evolution of this inflammatory process leads to ischemia or, sometimes, haemorrhage of the organs dependent on these vessels. The location of the affected vessels and tissues will determine the appearance of a wide variety of clinical manifestations and, therefore, a very variable prognosis. The different entities grouped under the term vasculitis include Wegener's granulomatosis, Churg-Strauss syndrome, classical panarteritis nodosa, microscopic polyangeitis, Kawasaki disease and classical leukocyte vasculitis, which predominantly affect small and medium-sized vessels. Giant cell arteritis and Takayasu arteritis mainly affect large vessels. We can find primary vasculitis (without association with another underlying disease) or secondary to both infectious processes and autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, etc.). Neutrophil anticitoplasma antibodies (ANCA) were initially described by Davies et al. (2) in patients with glomerulonephritis. They are directed against enzymes present in the granules.