(A)symptomatic necrotizing arteritis of the female genital tract

Aims: The vasculitides represent a heterogenous set of disorders that diffe r in prognosis and response to therapy. Beside systemic vasculitides, the d evelopment of localized forms of arteritis is well known though uncommon an d the etiopathogenesis is not yet definitely clear. Methods: Patients with necrotizing arteritis of the female genital tract proven by histology are s tudied in a retrospective analysis. Results: Three cases of necrotizing art eritis with histological features of panarteritis nodosa apparently confine d to the female genital tract are presented. None of these patients had pri or history of systemic vasculitis. The acute necrotizing vasculitis was con fined only to the uterine cervix in two patients and involved all the inter nal genital organs in the third patient. The patients have been observed fo r up to 4 years without any therapy for these lesions and without any manif estation of systemic vasculitic progression. Conclusion: It is to speculate that focal arteritis of the female genital tract is a benign form of panar teritis nodosa or moreover a totally different entity with identical morpho genesis but possibly different pathogenesis. Furthermore it seems to be imp ortant to be aware of the specificity of focal arteritis in female genital tract as distinct from the generalized form to prevent unnecessary surgical or chemotherapeutical therapy for this lesion. The benign entity of local arteritis in the female genital tract is discussed in contrast to the sever e prognosis of systemic panarteritis nodosa. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Irel and Ltd. All rights reserved.