IgA Vasculitis: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment

Children are most often affected, but adults can develop it. Kidney involvement may be silent, so urine and blood-pressure follow-up continues for months after the rash improves.

Related reading: Kawasaki disease as a different childhood vasculitis.

Raised purple spots that do not fade under pressure often affect the legs and buttocks, with joint or abdominal pain. Blood or protein in urine may be invisible.

Immune deposits containing immunoglobulin A collect in vessel walls. A respiratory infection may precede it, but the cause is incompletely understood and the rash itself is not contagious.

Young school-age children are commonly affected, sometimes after respiratory infection. Adults may have more severe kidney involvement. Risk factors never replace clinical assessment.

Diagnosis combines symptom patterns with blood pressure and urine testing, adding kidney blood tests when needed. Skin or kidney biopsy and imaging are selected for atypical features or complications.

Many cases need supportive care only. Corticosteroids are reserved for selected symptoms or organ involvement, not routinely to prevent nephritis. Kidney involvement needs a severity-based specialist plan.

Persistent kidney disease, relapse and occasionally bowel telescoping or gastrointestinal bleeding can occur. Long-term monitoring depends on urine, blood pressure and kidney function rather than rash severity alone.

There is no established prevention. Keep urine and blood-pressure appointments after the rash clears, and avoid unsupervised anti-inflammatory medicines when kidney injury or gastrointestinal bleeding is possible.