REVIEWS   

Acta Vulnologica 2003 August;1(1):9-19

Copyright © 2003 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Vasculitis ulcers

Papi M.

Istituto Dermopatico Immacolata, IRCCS, Roma

Cutaneous vas­cu­litis ­include a ­wide and het­ero­ge­ne­ous ­group of dis­eas­es char­ac­ter­ized by spe­cif­ic inflam­ma­to­ry chang­es of ­venules, arteri­oles and cap­il­lar­ies. A pathog­e­net­ic ­role of cir­cu­lat­ing immu­ne­com­plex­es and auto­an­ti­bod­ies in ­these syn­dromes is dif­fuse­ly accept­ed. Small ves­sel vas­cu­litis can be lim­it­ed to the ­skin or rep­re­sent the cuta­ne­ous involve­ment in the ­case of system­ic vas­cu­litis. The ­skin is a pref­e­ren­tial tar­get ­organ and the ­result is the clin­i­cal fea­ture of pal­pa­ble pur­pu­ra and the his­to­log­i­cal chang­es of leu­ko­cy­to­clas­tic vas­cu­litis. The occlu­sion or nar­row­ing of the cuta­ne­ous ves­sels is a fre­quent com­pli­ca­tion. It ­explains the ­focal ische­mia and the con­se­quent ­skin ­ulcer. It has ­been cal­cu­lat­ed ­that appro­i­ma­te­ly 5-8% of the ­ulcers may be sub­stained by a vas­cu­lit­ic dis­or­der. Thus, the new ­term “microangiopathic ­ulcer” ­includes a ­large ­part of cuta­ne­ous vas­cu­litis which may man­i­fest or com­pli­cate ­with cuta­ne­ous ­ulcers.