VIDEO: ‘Collaboration is key’ for managing patients with vasculitis

Editor’s note: This is an automatically generated transcript, which has been slightly edited for clarity. Please notify editor@healio.com if there are concerns regarding accuracy of the transcription.

As we know, vasculitis is a systemic disease and can manifest in different organs, such as the lungs, with diffuse pulmonary alveolar hemorrhage, cerebral vasculitis, scleritis, myocarditis, other heart diseases, skin disease, and for me, glomerulonephritis in the kidney.

At Stanford, rheumatologists often manage these patients through the vasculitis clinic that we have, but when they have specific organ issues, many other subspecialists are consulted and involved in their care. And this collaboration is key. Since patients that have vasculitis and have different organs affected, important decisions need to be made on their treatment based on which organ is most affected. So, if the kidneys are predominantly affected, meaning I do a kidney biopsy, I see active disease, their MPO, or PR-3 is positive, I see a worsening creatinine with worsening GFR, I may lead the discussion, and want certain treatments done based on those findings.

So, overall, collaboration of this disease is key, and sometimes requires face-to-face meeting with me, for example, cardiology and rheumatology, again, making a decision together.