Large Vessel Vasculitis
Dr Mariam Al-Attar is currently a Internal Medical Trainee doctor at Northern Care Alliance. She graduated from Lancaster University where she held a number of positions that make her qualified to be an M4RD ambassador, including: President of Lancaster Medical Ethics Society and the Peer-Assisted Learning Society. She was also the winner of The Student Voice Prize Essay Competition 2017 with her essay ‘TRAPPED – an insight into two sisters’ struggle to access treatment for a rare genetic disease’ which you can read here.
As well as writing a guest blog for M4RD ‘How one medical student learned to #DareToThinkRare‘, Mariam has produced an excellent learning resource about small vessel vasculitis. She is also currently helping with the data analysis for the M4RD Red Flags Survey.
I was inspired to create this resource on large vessel vasculitis (LVV) after attending a rheumatology conference recently, where trainees presented their varied experiences of diagnosing and treating LVV. I found it all absolutely fascinating, but was also struck by how much I still didn’t know on the topic.
Dr Mariam Al-Attar, Internal Medicine Trainee
Subsequently trying to learn more about it made me realise how difficult it can be to access and understand information relating to rarer conditions. Despite having a great passion for rheumatology, and being extremely keen to learn more about vasculitis, I still found it difficult to find the most accurate and well-organised information! I was honoured to work alongside an expert in the field, Dr Chetan Mukhtyar, who supported me with the most up-to-date information, allowing me to create this resource.
I hope this resource will be useful for giving medical students a thorough but concise overview of LVV, but could also be useful for any junior doctor interested in understanding LVV a bit better. Creating it has certainly been beneficial for me, and I hope it will benefit others too.
Dr Mariam Al-Attar, Internal Medicine Trainee
Resources
Oxford Textbook of Rheumatology
Patient UK Professional https://patient.info
2018 Update of the EULAR recommendations for the management of large vessel vasculitis
Acknowledgments
Developed for M4RD by Dr Mariam Al-Attar (produced whilst a Foundation Doctor)
With special thanks to Dr Chetan Mukhtyar (Consultant Rheumatologist)
