Polyarteritis.

Diagnosis and evaluation

Diagnosis

PAN may be difficult to diagnose because it produces many different symptoms in different people. Unfortunately, there is no single laboratory test or X-ray that can give a definite diagnosis. Your doctor will ask questions about your symptoms and give you a physical examination. This helps rule out other causes of the symptoms. Next, your doctor usually will need to confirm that vasculitis is present.

Vasculitis in a medium-sized artery is detected in two ways:

1. A biopsy (or small sample of skin, muscle, kidney, or nerve) is removed and examined under a microscope. If vasculitis is present, the arteries in the sample will contain abnormal cells that appear only when inflammation is present.
2. Special X-ray studies of the blood vessels (angiogram) can show narrowing, irregularities, or blockages that are caused by vasculitis. In this procedure, a dye that shows up on X-rays is injected into a blood vessel, and several X-rays are taken as the dye flows through the vessels.

Your doctor may need to do both a biopsy and an angiogram to diagnose PAN. Other blood tests and X-rays usually are done to rule out other diseases that could cause similar symptoms.

Health care team

How useful was this page or article? This article is rated out of 5 stars (31 ratings). Not useful at all Not very useful Useful Very useful Extremely useful