Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 356, Issue 9234, 16 September 2000, Pages 1023-1025
The Lancet

Eponym
Takayasu's arteritis

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Case presentation

A 28-year-old man was referred to our department by his dentist for suspicion of vasculitis in June 1996. Having experienced gradually increasing left-sided neck pain since February, 1996, the patient initially visited an otolaryngologist who, after noting swollen submandibular lymph nodes on the left side, sent the patient to a dentist. Antibiotics prescribed for suspected periodontitis of an impacted wisdom tooth did not improve the symptoms, and the patient began to experience dizziness on

Takayasu's arteritis

Takayasu's arteritis is a chronic vasculitis mainly involving the aorta and its main branches such as the brachiocephalic, carotid, subclavian, vertebral, and renal arteries, as well as the coronary and pulmonary arteries. It induces clinically varied ischaemic symptoms due to stenotic lesions or thrombus formation. More acute progression causes destruction of the media of the arterial wall, leading to the formation of aneurysms or rupture of the involved arteries.1 Almost all patients have

History

The first description of Takayasu's arteritis was published in 1830 by Rokushu Yamamoto in a documentation of cases from his private practice entitled Kitsuo idan, meaning “Medical records of my private hospital with the big orange tree” (figure 2). In it, Yamamoto, who practised Japanese oriental medicine, described a 45-year-old man who initially had a high fever and who presented a year later with no pulse in one arm and a very weak pulse in the other. Later, both carotid arteries became

Developments in diagnosis and treatment

Nowadays, doctors who encounter patients with neck pain or inflammatory signs of unknown origin suggested by raised C-reactive protein concentrations and accelerated erythrocyte sedimentation rate would suspect vasculitis and request diagnostic assessment with magnetic resonance angiography, computed tomography, or digital subtraction angiography. Thus the diagnosis of Takayasu's arteritis can be made at an early stage before ischaemic manifestations become obvious.

One of the characteristic

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