The Expanding Role of Imaging in Systemic Vasculitis

Abstract

Various imaging modalities, including color duplex ultrasonography, CT angiography, magnetic resonance angiography, and PET, are emerging as important aids to the diagnosis, staging, evaluation of disease activity and response to treatment in systemic vasculitis. Although large-vessel vasculitis is the main target of imaging, refinement and increasing accuracy of imaging modalities are also providing useful information in the evaluation of medium-vessel and small-vessel vasculitis.

Keywords: Diagnosis; Disease activity; Imaging; Outcome measures; Systemic vasculitis; Treatment.