Why does the VCRC only study six types of vasculitis and why not study the type of vasculitis I have?
It would be great to be able to study every type of vasculitis since there are unmet scientific and clinical needs for each disease. However, there are limits to our research resources. We decided to concentrate on 6 different types of vasculitis, representing small vessel (Wegeners granulomatosis, microscopic polyangiitis, and Churg-Strauss Syndrome), medium vessel (polyarteritis nodosa), and large vessel (giant cell arteritis and Takayasus arteritis). These diseases represent a broad spectrum of vasculitis types and were disease in which we thought it was feasible to conduct research. We may expand the number and type of diseases under study within the Consortium, depending on funding and research ideas. It is important to remember that it is quite likely that new findings in one type of vasculitis can be beneficial in our understanding of the cause or how to treat other types of vasculitis.
