Historical Perspectives of Vasculitis

Historical accounts of idiopathic vasculitis provide an important perspective for modern clinicians and researchers in understanding the evolution of current concepts of clinical vasculitis and its nosology and classification. Descriptions of large vessel vasculitis may date from the Middle Ages, with wider recognition and better understanding of inflammatory vessel disease coming in the nineteenth and early twentieth century with descriptions of polyarteritis nodosa, microscopic polyarteritis and granulomatous vasculitis, forming the foundation for current research and classification efforts.