 [ Symptoms ] what is polyarteritis nodosa pan and how it differ from lupus [ Disease ] polyarteritis nodosa is a type of inflammation of the blood vessels vasculitis that affects medium  and large sized arteries depending on which blood vessels are involved and specifically the tissues they supply injury can occur to internal organs such as the kidneys or bowel systemic lupus erythematosus sle is an autoimmune disease that can cause inflammation of many tissues of the body including the skin joints lungs heart nervous system and kidneys sle may or may not cause vasculitis