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Takayasu's arteritis: a review of the literature

  • Internal Medicine
  • Review Article Clinical Immunology
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Abstract

Takayasu's arteritis is a rare, idiopathic, chronic inflammatory disease with cell-mediated inflammation, involving mainly the aorta and its major branches. It leads to stenosis, occlusion or aneurysmal degeneration of large arteries. The clinical presentation is characterised by an acute phase with constitutional symptoms, followed, months or years later, by a chronic phase in which symptoms relate to fibrosis or occlusion of vessels. Angiography is the gold standard for diagnosis and for topographical classification and it correlates with symptoms and prognosis. Here we focus on the pathophysiology, clinical and angiographical classification, diagnostic assessment and therapeutic approach of Takayasu's arteritis.

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  1. Sezione di Medicina III, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Scienze Immunologiche, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci, 53100, Siena

    Silvia Maffei, Michela Di Renzo, Giovanni Bova, Alberto Auteri & Anna Laura Pasqui

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  1. Silvia Maffei
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  2. Michela Di Renzo
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Correspondence to Michela Di Renzo.

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Maffei, S., Di Renzo, M., Bova, G. et al. Takayasu's arteritis: a review of the literature. Int Emergency Med 1, 105–112 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02936534

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