Page 9 - The Vasculitides, Volume 1: General Considerations and Systemic Vasculitis

Foreword

The systemic vasculitides have been the focus of rapidly increasing research activity,
which has over the past decade yielded significant advances in our understanding of their
aetiopathogenesis and clinical management. In 2013, the 16th International Vasculitis and
ANCA Workshop was held in Paris, organized by Professor Löic Guillevin. The present
volume has arisen out of this meeting and reflects the diverse range of topics that were
discussed, with individual chapters written in main by participants in the meeting.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the global occurrence of many types of
vasculitis varies between populations of different ethnic and geographical background, and
that this reflects genetic differences perhaps more than environmental factors.

The classification of the vasculitides has been a controversial topic for many years, but
the second Chapel Hill Consensus Conference held in Chapel Hill in 2012 has clarified the
situation, and the revised nomenclature and definitions adopted there have been used
throughout this volume. In the ANCA-associated vasculitides there has been increasing
recognition, as a result of epidemiological, genetic and clinical studies, that classification
should in future be based on ANCA specificity rather than conventional clinical phenotypes.

The pathogenicity of ANCA is increasingly supported by experiments using cell culture
systems and in vivo animal models. Several novel target antigens in ANCA-associated
vasculitis have been identified, but some of these remain controversial. There have been
important advances in our understanding of inflammatory mechanisms in vasculitis, involving
both the innate and adaptive immune systems.

The recent major developments in therapy are reflected in the therapeutic section of the
volume, with the introduction of targeted therapies for ANCA vasculitis and giant cell
arteritis. The advent of B cell depletion using rituximab for ANCA–associated vasculitis has
been one of the striking advances over the past decade.

The authors are to be congratulated on providing cutting-edge reviews on important
advances in systemic vasculitis, of relevance to the multi-disciplinary teams looking after
these patients. The publication of this volume provides an appetizer to the forthcoming 17th
International Vasculitis and ANCA Workshop to be held in London in April 2015.

Richard A. Watts, M.D., M.P.H., Norwich, UK
Charles Pusey, M.D., London, UK
July 13, 2014

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