Takayasu arteritis is a disease in which inflammation occurs in the blood vessels, which damages the aorta and its branches, which is the artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body.
This disease can cause abnormal narrowing of blood vessels or aneurysms, in which arteries dilate abnormally, which can cause symptoms such as arm or chest pain, high blood pressure, fatigue, weight loss, and even more serious complications.
- Treatment involves medications to control inflammation of the arteries and prevent complications.
- And in more severe cases.
- Surgery may be necessary.
The disease is usually asymptomatic and symptoms are barely noticeable, especially in the active phase. However, as the disease progresses and an arterial narrowing develops, symptoms tend to become more apparent, such as fatigue, weight loss, generalized pain and fever.
Over time, other symptoms may appear, such as narrowing of blood vessels, causing less oxygen and nutrients to be transported to the organs, causing symptoms such as weakness and pain in the extremities, dizziness, fainting, headache, memory problems, and difficulty reasoning. Shortness of breath, vision changes, hypertension, measurement of different blood pressure values between different members, decreased pulse, anemia and chest pain.
Takayasu arteritis can lead to the development of several complications, such as hardening and narrowing of blood vessels, high blood pressure, heart inflammation, heart failure, stroke, aneurysms and heart attacks.
It is unclear what causes this disease, but it is believed to be an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system attacks the arteries by mistake and that this autoimmune reaction can be triggered by a viral infection. This disease is most common in women and occurs most often in girls and women between the ages of 10 and 40.
This disease progresses in two stages. The initial stage is characterized by an inflammatory process of blood vessels, called vascularitis, which affects the 3 layers of the arterial wall, which usually lasts for months. After the active phase, the chronic or inactive phase of the disease begins, characterized by the proliferation and fibrosis of the entire arterial wall.
When the disease progresses more rapidly, which is rarer, fibrosis can form poorly, causing thinning and weakening of the arterial wall, resulting in the formation of aneurysms.
Treatment aims to control the inflammatory activity of the disease and preserve blood vessels, to avoid long-term side effects. In the inflammatory phase of the disease, your doctor may prescribe oral corticosteroids, such as prednisone, for example, that can help treat general symptoms and prevent disease progression.
When the patient does not respond well to corticosteroids or relapses, the doctor may associate cyclophosphamide, azathioprine or methotrexate, for example.
Surgery is a little-used treatment for this disease. However, in cases of renovascular hypertension, cerebral ischemia or severe limb ischemia, aortic aneurysms and their branches, aortic regurgitation and coronary artery obstruction, your doctor may recommend surgery.