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Can Cerebral Vasculitis From Lupus Is Treatable?
Question: I did an MRI done on my head and it says ... Chronic Ischemic/Inflammatory Etiology is leading consideration. Also it is Consider the Sequela of Vasculities given the history of S.L.E. If it is possible to give me an idea what all that means would be a help. Thank you.
Brief Answer:
cerebral vasculitis from lupus is treatable
Detailed Answer:
It looks like my answer was not submitted earlier. Sorry for the delay.
Since you say you have SLE, which is an autoimmune disease, that can affect all the tissues of the body especially the vessels, called Lupus vasculitis. Vasculitis means inflammation of blood vessels, when these inflammatory changes within the wall of a vessel frequently causes necrosis to the vessel wall. In your case the vessels that supply the brain the of various sizes esp small and medium arteries, are inflammed according to the MRI, their inflammation causes slow or sluggish flow of blood to the brain and it can sometimes hamper the flow completely (severe inflammation). They can be temporary and the flow can be resumed once the inflammation subsides with steroids or immunosuppressant drugs given in SLE. If the person does not take proper or early treatment there is chronic inflammation leading to fibrosis of the vessels and stop the flow to few parts of the brain. They are seen like white patches on the MRI scan. Since brain is highly vascular and it creates alternate vessels to supply the same area the symptoms may not be significant initially.
As the age progresses the ability to create alternate channels reduces leading to stroke. The good thing is it is treatable and the current research is about maintaining the remission.
Hope you understand what I explained. Let me know if you have any specific question related to it. It is easy to answer specific questions.
Thanks.
cerebral vasculitis from lupus is treatable
Detailed Answer:
It looks like my answer was not submitted earlier. Sorry for the delay.
Since you say you have SLE, which is an autoimmune disease, that can affect all the tissues of the body especially the vessels, called Lupus vasculitis. Vasculitis means inflammation of blood vessels, when these inflammatory changes within the wall of a vessel frequently causes necrosis to the vessel wall. In your case the vessels that supply the brain the of various sizes esp small and medium arteries, are inflammed according to the MRI, their inflammation causes slow or sluggish flow of blood to the brain and it can sometimes hamper the flow completely (severe inflammation). They can be temporary and the flow can be resumed once the inflammation subsides with steroids or immunosuppressant drugs given in SLE. If the person does not take proper or early treatment there is chronic inflammation leading to fibrosis of the vessels and stop the flow to few parts of the brain. They are seen like white patches on the MRI scan. Since brain is highly vascular and it creates alternate vessels to supply the same area the symptoms may not be significant initially.
As the age progresses the ability to create alternate channels reduces leading to stroke. The good thing is it is treatable and the current research is about maintaining the remission.
Hope you understand what I explained. Let me know if you have any specific question related to it. It is easy to answer specific questions.
Thanks.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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