title: Periaortitis and aortic dissection due to Wegener's granulomatosis.
abstract: We describe here a patient with abdominal periaortitis and intramural dissection as early manifestations of Wegener's granulomatosis (WG). Surgical biopsies taken from the retroperitoneal inflammatory tissue surrounding the aorta showed granulomatous vasculitis. The patient had antiproteinase-3 antibodies and suffered from nasal, pulmonary, nervous and renal WG involvement. Although being a vasculitis of medium size and small vessels, WG should be included in the systemic vasculitides which can give rise to (peri)aortic inflammation.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Internal Medicine, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Blockmans
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Baeyens
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Van Loon
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lauwers
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bobbaers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D001025:Aortitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D014890:Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18