Polyarteritis overlap syndrome with extensive bowel infarction.

An elderly female with laboratory evidence of rheumatoid arthritis presented with malnutrition, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, peripheral eosinophilia with eosinophilic infiltration of the pleura, uterus, skin and muscle without granuloma formation. She developed a necrotizing vasculitis of the mesenteric vessels without granuloma and died. This case illustrates that polyarteritis nodosa, even of the overlap type, may produce severe widespread mesenteric vasculitis.