In acute arteritis we find swelling along the vessel

In acute arteritis we find swelling along the vessel

In acute arteritis we find swelling along the vessel

Pathology. In acute arteritis we find swelling along the vessel, loss of elasticity, friability, and thickening of the walls; a roughness and loss of gloss of the inner coat, with the formation of coagula or pus in the vessel. Subacute or chronic arteritis may affect only the outer coat (periarteritis), both the outer and middle coat, or the inner coat alone (endarteritis); and by weakening the respective coats leads to rupture, aneurism, or to degenerations, such as bony, calcareous, fatty, atheromatous, etc. It may also lead to sclerosis or increase of fibrous tissue, especially in the kidneys, when it may result in the condition known as arterio-capillary fibrosis. Chronic endarteritis is fruitful in the production of thrombus and atheroma. Arteritis may be limited to single trunks or it may affect, more or less, all the arteries of the body. Arteries which are at the seat of chronic endarteritis are liable to suffer degenerative changes, consisting chiefly of fatty degeneration, calcification, or the breaking down of the degenerated tissue, and the formation of erosions or ulcerlike openings in the inner coat. These erosions are frequently called atheromatous ulcers, and fragments of tissue from these ulcers may be carried into the circulation, forming emboli. Fibrinous thrombi are apt to form upon the roughened surface of the inner coat or upon the surface of the erosions.