The designation "segmental hyalinizing vasculitis" was introduced in 1967 by Bard and Winkelmann at the same time as their coining of the term livedo vasculitis, which they used for the same condition (see also livedo vasculitis). [26] They used the term segmental hyalinizing vasculitis because they were impressed by findings histopathologic in biopsy specimens taken from their patients. Sections cut from those specimens showed "thickening, endothelial proliferation, hyalin degeneration of the subintimal layer, and focal thrombosis." The authors failed, however, to explain precisely, what they meant to say with "hyalin degeneration of the subintimal layer."

Hyalin is a term that is used to designate a heterogeneous group of substances that are entirely unrelated and that share only a pink color in sections stained by hematoxylin and eosin. Among those substances is basement membrane material (e.g., in cylindromas), lipoproteins (e.g., in Urbach-Wiethe syndrome), and fibrin (e.g., in vasculitides). What Bard and Winkelmann pictured in their article is simply deposition of fibrin in the walls of vessels.