What is vasculitis?

What is vasculitis?

Vasculitis is a general medical term that means inflammation of the blood vessels. When your blood vessels become inflamed, several things can happen:

• They can grow weak and stretch, which can cause an aneurysm to develop. (An aneurysm is an abnormal blood-filled enlargement of a blood vessel.)
• The walls can become thinner. If they do, the walls can rupture, and blood can leak out into tissue.
• They can narrow to the point of closing. This can cause damage to the organs from the loss of oxygen and nutrients that were being supplied by the blood.