8/26- Path: Peripheral Vascular Disease (Vaculitis) Flashcards

1
Q

What is vasculitis?

  • Cause?
  • Classified how
A

Inflammatory damage to blood vessels

  • “Arteritis, “angitis”, “phlebitis” refer to vessel type affected
  • Most common etiologies are infectious and autoimmune
  • Classified by size of affected vessel
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2
Q

What are the large vessel vasculitises?

A
  • Giant cell (Temporal) arteritis
  • Takayasu arteritis)
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3
Q

What are the medium vessel vasculitis-es?

A
  • Polyarteritis nodosa
  • Kawasaki disease
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4
Q

What are the small vessel vasculitis-es?

A
  • Wegener’s Granulomatosis
  • Churg-Strauss Syndrome
  • Microscopic Polyangiitis
  • Thromboangiitis Obliterans (Buerger’s Disease)
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5
Q

What are the immune complex mediated vasculitis-es?

A
  • SLE (SLE vasculitis)
  • IgA (Henoch-Schonlen purpura)
  • Cryoglobulin (cryoglobulin vasculitis)
  • Goodpasture disease
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6
Q

Vasculitis naming table

A
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7
Q

What is Giant Cell (Temporal) Arteritis?

  • Layers affected
  • Epidemiology
  • Associations
  • Symptoms
  • Treatment
A
  • Granulomatous inflammation at the junction of the tunica intima and tunica media
  • Most common vasculitis in elderly people
  • Association with polymyalgia rheumatica
  • Involvement of ophthalmic artery may lead to blindness; MEDICAL EMERGENCY
  • If diagnosis is suspected, give corticosteroids immediately
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8
Q

What is Takayasu’s Pulseless Arteritis?

  • Layers affected
  • Epidemiology
  • Symptoms
A
  • Granulomatous inflammation involving the junction between the adventitia and tunica media
  • Usually seen in young women (15-40)
  • Manifests as weakened upper extremity pulses and ocular disturbances
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9
Q

What is Polyarteritis Nodosa?

  • Layers affected
  • Associations
  • Symptoms
A
  • Systemic, transmural! vasculitis involving muscular arterioles with sparing of pulmonary vasculature
  • Usually involves renal, visceral arterioles (typically spares pulmonary vasculature)
  • A spectrum of vasculitic changes are usually seen in one patient
  • Associated with chronic hepatitis B
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10
Q

What is Kawasaki Disease?

  • Epidemiology
  • Symptoms
  • Treatment
A
  • Leading cause of acquired heart disease in children
  • Most pts are less than 4 yo

Symptoms:

  • Erythema of lips, hands, and feet
  • Desquamation of skin
  • Lymphadenopathy
  • Vasculitis

Feared complication = aneurysm of the coronary arteries with rupture or MI

Treatment:

  • IVIG
  • Aspirin
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11
Q

What are ANCAs? Uses?

A

Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibodies

  • These are Abs vs. inflammatory cell granule components
  • P-ANCA (perinuclear) = MPO-ANCA
  • C-ANCA (cytoplasmic) = PR3-ANCA
  • Used to diagnose and track response to therapy, relapse, etc.
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12
Q

What is Wegener’s Granulomatosis?

  • Vessel types affected
  • Symptoms
  • ANCA marker?
  • Epidemiology
  • Treatment
A

Varying manifestations:

  • Necrotizing vasculitis of small to medium vessels within the lungs and upper airways
  • Necrotizing extravascular granulomas in upper respiratory tract, lung, or both -> many pulmonary symptoms (sinus lesions, cavitating lung lesions)

- Renal disease (crescentic glomerulonephritis)

Pneumonitis, sinusitis, renal disease

Associated with C-ANCA (PR3-ANCA) More often in men than women

Treatment: Immunosuppression

Note: vessel becomes necrotic, but the granuloma itself occurs in the organ away from the vessel

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13
Q

What is Churg-Strauss Syndrome?

  • Cause
  • Symptoms
  • Associations
  • Morbidity
  • ANCA marker?
A
  • Allergic granulomatosis and angiitis
  • Necrotizing vasculitis with infiltration by eosinophils (distinguish from Wegener’s with eos and the fact that granulomas are intravascular)
  • Intra- and extravascular necrotizing granulomas
  • Associated with asthma, allergic rhinitis, lung infiltrates, and peripheral eosinophilia
  • Coronary arteritis & myocarditis are main causes of morbidity
  • Associated with P-ANCA (MPO-ANCA)
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14
Q

What is Microscopic Polyangiitis

  • Cause
  • Vessels involved
  • ANCA marker
  • What is seen histologically
A
  • Necrotizing vasculitis of small vessels
  • Also known as leukocytoclastic vasculitis
  • Can mimic PAN, but all lesions are the same age
  • Can involve microvasculature of kidney, lung, skin, mucous membranes, brain, GI tract, heart
  • Associated with P-ANCA (MPO-ANCA)
  • Antibody response to foreign antigens

Luekocytoclastic vasculitis

  • See neutrophil “carcasses” everywhere
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15
Q

What is Thromboangiitis Obliterans (Buerger’s Disease)?

  • Epidemiology
  • Vessels affected
  • Manifestations
A
  • Typical history: young males who smoke heavily
  • Segmental, thrombosing vasculitis of small to medium arteries of extremities
  • Leads to vascular insufficiency

Manifestations

  • Chronic ulceration
  • Gangrene
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16
Q

What are the benign, itermediate, and malignant tumors?

A

Benign:

  • Hemangioma

Intermediate:

  • Kaposi Sarcoma
  • Hemangioendothelioma

Malignant

  • Angiosarcoma
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17
Q

What is Hemangioma?

  • Types
  • Epidemiology
  • Histological signs
  • Locations
A

Benign tumor

Various types: capillary, cavernous…

Epidemiology:

  • Infantile hemangiomas are 7% of all benign tumors of infancy and childhood
  • Most are present from birth and expand along with the growth of the child
  • Many of the capillary lesions eventually regress spontaneously

Histology:

  • Unencapsulated aggregates of closely packed, thin-walled capillaries
  • Caps usually blood-filled and lined by flattened endothelium

Often seen in liver, tongue, lips….

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18
Q

What is Kaposi’s Sarcoma?

  • Cause
  • Associations
  • Stages/symptoms
A
  • Common in patients with AIDS
  • Associated with HHV-8

Patch, plaque, and nodule stages

  • Nodule stage: sheets of plump spindle cells, mostly in the dermis or subcutaneous tissues, with small vessels and slitlike spaces containing red cells
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19
Q

What is a hemangioendothelioma?

A

NOT TESTED

Group of vascular neoplasms with clinical behavior intermediate between benign, well-differentiated hemangiomas and highly malignant angiosarcomas

  • Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma

—-Adults

—-Occurs around medium-sized and large veins

—-Plump and often cuboidal neoplastic cells (resemble epithelial cells) with inconspicuous vascular channels

Clinical behavior: most are cured by excision, up to 40% recur, 20% to 30% eventually metastasize, and perhaps 15% of patients die of the tumor

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20
Q

What is an angiosarcoma?

  • Epidemiology
  • Location
  • Associations
A

Epidemiology

  • Older adults are more commonly affected
  • Equal gender predilection

Occur at any site, but most often involve skin, soft tissue, breast, and liver

Hepatic angiosarcomas: associated with carcinogen exposures with long latency period

  • Arsenic (arsenical pesticides), Thorotrast (a radioactive contrast agent formerly used for radiologic imaging), and polyvinyl chloride (a widely used plastic)
  • Also seen in setting of lymphedema, e.g. in upper extremity several years after radical mastectomy (i.e., with lymph node resection) or after radiation
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21
Q

Case 1)

  • 24 yo man with Hep B Ag+
  • Diffuse muscle aches, acute abdominal pain
  • BP = 180/100
  • Abdominal arteriogram shows multiple mesenteric (medium) vessels with focal aneurysmal dilatation of the branch points and bifurcations
  • Decreased perfusion of an affected bowel segment with suspected thrombotic occlusion

What form of vasculitis does he most likely have?

A

Poly-arteritis nodosa (PAN)

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22
Q

What sized arteries and what anatomic sites are most frequently invovled in PAN?

A

Small to medium sized muscular arteries of the visceral vasculature

  • Main visceral arterial branches, e.g. renal, coronary, hepatic and mesenteric
  • NOT renal, glomerulonephritis (hematuria) is not characteristic of this disease process
  • Spares the pulmonary vasculature
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23
Q

What is seen here?

A

PAN

  • A bunch of inflammation; affects entire wall (transumural)

Acute lesions:

- Fibrinoid necrosis (full thickness)—often eccentric and not the entire circumference

  • neutrophils, eosinophils, and mononuclear cells in and around the vessel wall
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24
Q

What is seen here?

A

PAN

  • A bunch of inflammation; affects entire wall (transumural)

Acute lesions:

  • Fibrinoid necrosis (full thickness)—often eccentric and not the entire circumference
  • neutrophils, eosinophils, and mononuclear cells in and around the vessel wall
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25
Q

What is seen here?

A

PAN: Healing lesions

  • transmural scarring plus ongoing necrosis
  • increased numbers of macrophages and plasma cells
  • organized thrombosis
  • fibrosis extending into surrounding adventitia
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26
Q

What is seen here?

A

PAN: Healed lesions

  • marked fibrotic thickening of the arterial wall
  • loss or fragmentation of the internal elastic lamina, with replacement by fibrosis.
27
Q

What serologic test may be found in association with PAN?

A

Positive hepatitis B antigen serology (30%)

28
Q

Case 2)

  • 45-year-old male with persistent fever, muscle and joint pain, and shortness of breath (despite antibiotics)
  • PMH: chronic sinusitis
  • Physical Exam: Ulceration in the nasopharynx
  • CXR: bilateral, nodular and cavitary pulmonary infiltrates
  • Lab: hematuria and proteinuria

Basically: many pulmonary and renal symptoms

Take biopsy:

  • Large cavitary regions

What is this?

A

Wegener’s granulomatosis

29
Q

What is seen here?

A

Gross picture: granulomas

Necrotizing granulomatous inflammation corresponding to grossly identified granulomas

  • “geographic outline” of necrosis
  • Microabscess

***Granulomas= organized collections ofepithelioid histiocytes, often withmultinucleated giant cells, +/- cuff of lymphocytes

30
Q

What is seen here?

A

Gross picture: granulomas

Necrotizing granulomatous inflammation corresponding to grossly identified granulomas

  • “geographic outline” of necrosis
  • Microabscess

***Granulomas = organized collections of epithelioid histiocytes, often with multinucleated giant cells, +/- cuff of lymphocytes

31
Q

What is seen here?

A

Nongranulomatous vasculitis in the lung tissue (separate from the granulomas)

32
Q

What is the triad seen in Wegener’s disease?

A

1. Granulomas: Acute necrotizing granulomas of the upper and lower respiratory tract (nose, sinuses, and lung)

2. Vasculature: Focal necrotizing (usually not granulomatous) vasculitis affecting small to medium–sized vessels; most prominent in the vessels of the lungs and upper airways, but affects other sites as well.

3. Renal disease (focal or diffuse necrotizing glomerulitis)

33
Q

What is a good marker for Wegener’s disease?

A

C-ANCA (cytoplasmi anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic Ab)

  • good marker for disease activity (93% of patients with active generalized disease)
  • Patients in remission: negative test or a decrease in c-ANCA titer; rising titer of c-ANCA -> suggestive of relapse
34
Q

Case 3)

  • 60-year-old male w/ severe throbbing headache over his right temple and visual loss in right eye
  • PE: tender, enlarged vessel palpated along the right temple with erythema in the overlying skin
  • Lab: ESR = markedly elevated (erythrocyte sedimentation rate; marker of systemic/generalized inflammation)

What form of vasculitis does he most likely have?

A

Giant cell (temporal) arteritis

35
Q

What is seen here?

A

Giant cell (temporal) arteritis

Classic pattern = focal granulomatous inflammation with:

  • giant cell formation (2/3 of cases)- may need multiple sections
  • fragmentation of the internal elastic membrane (as seen with the VVG stain for elastin)

May have thrombus in the vessel +/- organization and recanalization

Other patterns:

a) nonspecific inflammation (lymphocytes and eosinophils) in all layers of the arterial wall
b) intimal fibrosis without obvious disruption of the internal elastic lamina.

36
Q

What is seen here?

A

Giant cell (temporal) arteritis

Classic pattern = focal granulomatous inflammation with:

  • giant cell formation (2/3 of cases)- may need multiple sections
  • fragmentation of the internal elastic membrane (as seen with the VVG stain for elastin)

May have thrombus in the vessel +/- organization and recanalization

Other patterns:

a) nonspecific inflammation (lymphocytes and eosinophils) in all layers of the arterial wall
b) intimal fibrosis without obvious disruption of the internal elastic lamina.

37
Q

What is seen here?

A

Giant cell (temporal) arteritis

Classic pattern = focal granulomatous inflammation with:

  • giant cell formation (2/3 of cases)- may need multiple sections
  • fragmentation of the internal elastic membrane (as seen with the VVG stain for elastin)

May have thrombus in the vessel +/- organization and recanalization

Other patterns:

a) nonspecific inflammation (lymphocytes and eosinophils) in all layers of the arterial wall
b) intimal fibrosis without obvious disruption of the internal elastic lamina.

38
Q

What is seen here?

A

Giant cell (temporal) arteritis

Classic pattern = focal granulomatous inflammation with:

  • giant cell formation (2/3 of cases)- may need multiple sections
  • fragmentation of the internal elastic membrane (as seen with the VVG stain for elastin)

May have thrombus in the vessel +/- organization and recanalization

Other patterns:

a) nonspecific inflammation (lymphocytes and eosinophils) in all layers of the arterial wall
b) intimal fibrosis without obvious disruption of the internal elastic lamina.

39
Q

In general, what sized arteries would be involved in Giant cell (temporal) arteritis, and in what anatomic locations? Epidemiology?

A

Large to medium-sized cranial vessels, including:

  • temporal arteries (most common)
  • vertebral arteries
  • ophthalmic arteries
  • rarely, the aorta

Occurs in older individuals, rare below the age of 50 years

40
Q

What accounts for this pt’s visual loss in the right eye?

A
  • Involvement of the ophthalmic artery
  • Visual symptoms may vary from blurred or double vision to the sudden onset of blindness (up to 40% of patients)
41
Q

How could the visual loss have been prevented (Giant cell (temporal) arteritis)?

A

Corticosteroid therapy!

42
Q

What laboratory tests and surgical procedures could aid in the diagnosis of Giant cell (temporal) arteritis?

A
  • Markedly elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is suggestive (supportive), but is non-specific
  • Biopsy of the affected temporal artery is specific, but not entirely sensitive
  • Go ahead and start treatment based on clinical picture
  • don’t wait for the biopsy
43
Q

Case 4)

  • 28-year-old female w/ intermittent dizziness and blurred vision
  • PE: low BP in arms, weakened radial pulse, retinal hemorrhages, and focal visual field defects
  • Angiography: decreased dye in the upper extremities and narrowing at the origins of the great vessels in the aortic arch

What disease does she most likely have?

A

Takayasu’s (pulseless) arteritis

44
Q

What sized vessels and what actual vessels are involved in Takayasu’s arteritis?

A

Large to medium–sized arteries (classically the aortic arch)

  • In up to 1/3 of cases, the remainder of the aorta and its branches are also involved
  • Some cases are limited to the descending thoracic and abdominal aorta
45
Q

What is seen here?

A

Takayasu Vasculitis

- Early changes: mononuclear inflammation into the adventitia with perivascular cuffing of the vasa vasorum.

- Intermediate changes: intense mononuclear inflammation in the media, (+/-granulomatous changes with giant cells and central necrosis)

- Later stages: medial fibrosis and thickening of the intima by smooth muscle cells and associated extracellular matrix

46
Q

What is seen here?

A

Takayasu Vasculitis

- Early changes: mononuclear inflammation into the adventitia with perivascular cuffing of the vasa vasorum.

- Intermediate changes: intense mononuclear inflammation in the media, (+/-granulomatous changes with giant cells and central necrosis)

- Later stages: medial fibrosis and thickening of the intima by smooth muscle cells and associated extracellular matrix

47
Q

What is seen here?

A

Takayasu Vasculitis

- Early changes: mononuclear inflammation into the adventitia with perivascular cuffing of the vasa vasorum.

- Intermediate changes: intense mononuclear inflammation in the media, (+/-granulomatous changes with giant cells and central necrosis)

- Later stages: medial fibrosis and thickening of the intima by smooth muscle cells and associated extracellular matrix

48
Q

What is seen here?

A

Takayasu Vasculitis

- Early changes: mononuclear inflammation into the adventitia with perivascular cuffing of the vasa vasorum.

- Intermediate changes: intense mononuclear inflammation in the media, (+/-granulomatous changes with giant cells and central necrosis)

- Later stages: medial fibrosis and thickening of the intima by smooth muscle cells and associated extracellular matrix

49
Q

How do you distinguish Takayasu Vasculitis from Temporal Arteritis?

A

Largely based on clinical data!!!

  • Age of the patient (females 15-40)
  • More common in Asia

Takayasu’s arteritis: more likely to have inflammation in the adventitia (inflammation occurs more peripherally while Temporal arteritis is between intima and media?)

**Histologic changes of Takayasu’s arteritis may be indistinguishable from those of Giant cell (temporal) arteritis

50
Q

What accounts for the ocular disturbances and weakening of the pulses with decreased blood pressure in the upper extremities in Takayasu’s vasculitis?

A

Fibrous thickening of the aortic arch -> narrowing or virtual obliteration of the origins of the great vessels arising in the arch -> orifices of the major arteries to the upper portions of the body are markedly stenosed or occluded -> “pulseless disease.”

51
Q

Case 5)

  • 30 yo man, Hx of heavy smoking
  • Developed cold sensitivity in his fingertips and foot pain with exercise
  • Eventually led to excrutiating pain and gangrenous necrosis of multiple fingers and toes

What form of angiitis do the history and physical findings imply?

A

Thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger’s disease)

52
Q

What is seen here?

A

Thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger’s disease)

  • Segmental, thrombosing, acute and chronic inflammation of small and medium sized arteries (occasionally veins) of the extremities
  • Thrombus contains a central microabscess of neutrophils surrounded by granulomatous inflammation

With time, there is organization and recanalization

53
Q

To what environmental exposure is Thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger’s disease) most consistently related? Mechanism?

A

Heavy cigarette smoking!!

Possible mechanisms:

  • Direct endothelial cell toxicity
  • Vasoconstriction induced by catecholamine metabolism
  • Hypercoagulability leading to thrombosis
54
Q

How does this pathologic process (Thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger’s disease) )contrast with that of atherosclerosis?

A

Buerger’s disease:

  • Transmural inflammation and occlusive luminal thrombosis (with small micro-abscesses within the thrombus)

Atherosclerosis:

  • Bland thrombosis
55
Q

Case 6)

- 15 mo male

  • Fever to 105
  • Irritable, generalized erythematous papular rash, bilateral conjunctival injection, periorbital and pedal edema, “oral lesions”, perianal and inguinal desquamation; tachycardia
  • CXR: cardiomegaly with 4-chamber enlargement and pericardial effusion

What type of arteritis is he likely to have?

A

Kawasaki Disease

56
Q

What age groups are typically affected in Kawasaki Disease?

A
  • Young children and infants (80% younger than 4 years old)
  • Epidemics occur in Japan
  • Increasingly in the U.S
57
Q

What sized arteries does Kawasaki’s Disease usually involve? Where?

A

Medium-sized and small arteries

  • Classically: coronary arteries!! (will see aneurysms here)
58
Q

What do the cardiac catheterization results show in Kawasaki’s Disease?

A

Multiple aneurysmal dilatations of coronary arteries

59
Q

Correlate the catheterization results with the gross findings in Kawasaki’s Disease

A
60
Q

This shows a histologic section of a left coronary artery extending from the aortic sinus.

What are the abnormal findings?

A

Kawasaki’s Disease?

Aneurysmally dilated coronary artery with organized thrombus and possible more recent thrombus

61
Q

What dreaded complication can result (from coronary artery aneurysm) and why (seen in Kawasaki)?

A

20% of kids with Kawasaki’s disease can develop cardiovascular problems

  • Ranging from coronary artery ectasia or aneurysm formation to giant coronary artery aneurysms w/ rupture or thrombosis, myocardial infarction or sudden death
  • Acute fatalities occur in 1–2% of patients
62
Q

Case 7)

  • 22 yo female with fatigue, myalgias, and a “rash” on her legs
  • PMH: recent course of penicillin for suspected strep throat
  • PE: scattered petechiae across the anterior aspects of both lower legs with some papular (“palpable”) purpuric lesions
  • What is the diagnosis based on the examination of the biopsy?

What are the histological features?

A

Leukocytoclastic vasculitis (microscopic polyangiitis)

Histological features:

  • Fibrinoid necrosis of the media
  • Neutrophil infiltration and neutrophil fragmentation (leukocytoclasis) in and around the vessel wall (“neutrophil dust/chunks”)
  • NO Granulomatous inflammation
63
Q

How is Leukocytoclastic vasculitis (microscopic polyangiitis) disease different from Polyarteritis Nodosa (PAN)?

A

1. Size of the involved vessels

Leukocytoclastic vasculitis: small arterioles, capillaries, and venules

PAN: small to medium-sized arterioles

2. Evolution of the lesions:

- Leukocytoclastic vasculitis: all lesions are “same age”

- PAN: spectrum from acute to partially-healed to well-healed all in the same patient at the same time

3. Presence or absence of renal and/or lung disease:

- Leukocytoclastic vasculitis: glomerulonephritis and pulmonary capillaritis can be present

- PAN: not usually seen

64
Q

In what clinical setting is leukocytoclastic vasculitis generally seen?

A
  • Association with hypersensitivity response and circulating immune complexes sites most commonly affected: skin, mucous membranes, joints, muscle, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract
  • In this case, the exposure of this patient to Streptococcus or to the penicillin likely induced a systemic hypersensitivity response –> vasculitis.