title: Systemic vasculitis: a cause of indeterminate intestinal inflammation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Indeterminate intestinal inflammation may result from a variety of inflammatory conditions in addition to ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease. The primary systemic vasculitides may present with intestinal inflammation and an indeterminate colitis. We set out to describe a series of children with primary systemic vasculitis who initially presented with clinical features suggestive of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) to establish criteria that might help discriminate between IBD and primary systemic vasculitis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten children (6 boys, median age at presentation 8.9 years, range 0.9-14.5 years) satisfied inclusion criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All had abdominal pain, weight loss, diarrhea (6 of 10 bloody) and laboratory evidence of a severe acute phase response. Extraintestinal clinical features included vasculitic rash, renal impairment, myalgia, testicular pain and polyarthritis. Endoscopy showed vascular changes or other macroscopic findings suggestive of vasculitis in 5 of 10 patients. Gut histology revealed indeterminate chronic inflammatory mucosal changes and one patient with small artery fibrinoid necrosis in the submucosal vessels. Extraintestinal biopsy was performed in 6 patients and had a higher yield for the demonstration of vasculitis than intestinal biopsy. The results of selective visceral angiography was suggestive of vasculitis in all patients, but was normal in 7 cases of treatment-unresponsive classic IBD. Treatment comprised corticosteroid and azathioprine in all patients. Cyclophosphamide was given to 7 of 10 patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Extraintestinal manifestations and inflammatory responses that may be disproportionate to the degree of intestinal inflammation provide clues to the presence of an underlying primary systemic vasculitis, and these data suggest that selective visceral angiography plays a key role in the diagnosis of vasculitis in this context. It is important to identify and treat any vasculitic component because failure to do so may result in consequential morbidity or mortality.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK. P.Brogan@ich.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Brogan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Kilday
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramsay
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Murch
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Walker-Smith
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Lindley
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Milla
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Dillon
mesh_terms: D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000209:etiology; D000210:Acute-Phase Reaction; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D014657:Vasculitis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D015431:Weight Loss