Pathophysiological Relationship between Infections and Systemic Vasculitis

Table 1

The most important microbial agents presumed to be involved in the development of primary systemic vasculitis.

	Microbial agent	Reference
Type of vasculitis
Takayasu arteritis	Mycobacterium tuberculosis	[5, 9, 10]
Giant cell arteritis	Burkholderia	[11]
Polyarteritis nodosa	Hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and HIV infection	[12]
Immune complex vasculitis
Antiglomerular basement membrane disease	Increased incidence during influenza epidemics	[13]
Cryoglobulinemic vasculitis	HCV	[14–16]
IgA vasculitis	Many bacteria, viruses, and even protozoa (e.g., Helicobacter pylori, Staphylococcus aureus, and M. pneumonia)	[17–22]
Hypocomplementemic urticarial vasculitis	Few associations with infections	[23]
ANCA-associated vasculitis
Microscopic polyangiitis	Staphylococcus aureus	[24]
Granulomatosis with polyangiitis	Staphylococcus aureus,; Klebsiella,; and Escherichia coli species	[24–36]
Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis	—