When To Call A Professional
Table of Contents
Call your doctor if you experience unexplained fever, weight loss, fatigue or malaise (a general sick feeling), with or without areas of rash, muscle weakness, breathing problems, chest pain or other symptoms described above.
Prognosis
The outlook depends on the specific type of vasculitis:
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Polyarteritis nodosa - The disease is treated successfully in up to 90% of patients.
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Hypersensitivity vasculitis - Most cases go away on their own, even without treatment. Rarely, the disease returns.
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Giant cell arteritis - The disease goes away in most people, but many require one to two years of prednisone.
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Wegener's granulomatosis - At one time, this illness was almost always fatal. Now, with proper treatment, 90% of patients have significant relief of symptoms and the disease goes away completely in about 75% of patients.
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Takayasu's arteritis - In the United States, about 90% of people with this form of vascullitis survive.
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Kawasaki disease - The outlook is excellent. Less than 3% of people with this disease develop fatal complications.
Additional Info
American College of Rheumatology 1800 Century Place, Suite 250 Atlanta, GA 30345 Phone: (404) 633-3777 Fax: (404) 633-1870 http://www.rheumatology.org/
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) 6701 Rockledge Drive P.O. Box 30105 Bethesda, MD 20824-0105 Phone: (301) 592-8573 http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/
National Organization for Rare Disorders, Inc. P.O. Box 8923 New Fairfield, CT 06812-8923 Phone: (203) 746-6518 Toll-Free: (800) 999-6673 Fax: (203) 746-6481 http://www.rarediseases.org/
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Building 31, Room 7A-50 31 Center Drive MSC 2520 Bethesda, MD 20892-2520 Phone: (301) 496-5717 http://www.niaid.nih.gov/
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