Takayasu's Arteritis is a disease in which inflammation occurs in blood vessels, causing damage to the aorta and its branches, which is the artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body.
This disease can lead to abnormal narrowing of blood vessels or aneurysms, in which the arteries are abnormally dilated, which can lead to symptoms such as pain in the arm or chest, hypertension, tiredness, weight loss, or even lead to more serious complications.
Treatment consists of administering medications to control inflammation of the arteries and prevent complications and, in more severe cases, surgery may be necessary.
What symptoms
The disease is often asymptomatic and symptoms are barely noticeable, especially in the active phase. However, as the disease progresses and arterial strictures develop, symptoms tend to become more apparent, such as tiredness, weight loss, generalized pain and fever.
Over time, other symptoms may occur, 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 limbs, dizziness, feeling faint, headache, problem with memory and difficulty in reasoning, shortness of breath, changes in vision, hypertension, measurement of different values in blood pressure between different limbs, decreased pulse, anemia and chest pain.
Complications of the disease
Takayasu's arteritis can lead to the development of other complications, such as hardening and narrowing of blood vessels, hypertension, inflammation of the heart, heart failure, stroke, aneurysm and heart attack.
Possible causes
It is not known for certain what is at the origin of this disease, but it is thought that it is an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system attacks the arteries themselves by mistake and that this autoimmune reaction can be triggered by a viral infection. This disease is more common in females and occurs more frequently in girls and women aged 10 to 40 years.
This disease evolves in 2 stages. The initial stage is characterized by an inflammatory process of blood vessels, called vasculitis, affecting the 3 layers of the arterial wall, which usually lasts for months. After the active phase, the chronic phase, or inactive phase of the disease, begins, which is characterized by the proliferation and fibrosis of the entire arterial wall.
When the disease progresses faster, which is more rare, fibrosis can be improperly formed, causing thinning and weakening of the arterial wall, resulting in the formation of aneurysms.
How the treatment is done
Treatment aims to control the inflammatory activity of the disease and preserve blood vessels in order to avoid long-term side effects. In the inflammatory phase of the disease, the doctor may prescribe oral corticosteroids, such as prednisone, for example, which can help treat general symptoms and prevent the progression of the disease.
When the patient does not respond well to corticosteroids or has a relapse, the doctor may associate a cyclophosphamide, azathioprine or methotrexate, for example.
Surgery is a little used treatment for this disease. However, in cases of renovascular arterial hypertension, cerebral ischemia or severe ischemia of the limbs, aortic aneurysms and their branches, aortic regurgitation and obstruction of coronary arteries, the doctor may advise to perform surgery.
