Purpose Takayasu’s arteritis is a chronic, granulomatous, large vessel vasculitis affecting the aorta and its large branches, and occurring most commonly in young women. It is the third most frequently diagnosed vasculitis in childhood. Generally, symptoms reflect ischemia to an affected organ or limb. A small percentage of patients develop neurologic symptoms such as visual disturbances, trans...

Although outbreaks are uncommon, equine viral arteritis is an important disease because of the potential risk of abortion in mares and establishment of the carrier state in a relatively high percentage of infected stallions. Equine arteritis virus carrier stallions constitute an important reservoir of infection, and appropriate precautions have to be taken when nonimmunized mares are inseminate...

A 15-year-old Japanese man was referred for evaluation of heart failure. Conventional heart failure therapy had little effect, and severe left ventricular dysfunction as well as elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate persisted. Magnetic resonance angiography showed aortic dilatation with wall thickening characteristic of Takayasu's arteritis. An endomyocardial biopsy specimen revealed infiltra...

Vascular changes in rheumatoid arthritis have been receiving increasing attention in the last few years. It is well known that cold hands are common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and a peripheral circulatory disturbance has been considered to be one of the aetiological factors of the disease since the report of the Empire Rheumatism Council (1950), which showed that 40 per cent. of the ...

Mice implanted with hybridoma secreting 6-19 IgG3 anti-IgG2a rheumatoid factor (RF) with cryoglobulin activity develop acute glomerulonephritis and cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis. As the RF activity is implicated in the skin, but not glomerular lesions, it is still unclear whether the renal pathogenicity is determined by 6-19 H chains alone or their combination with L chains. To address ...

Childhood Takayasu arteritis is one of the most common vasculitis in paediatric age group. It predominantly involves greater vessels such as aorta and its branches, leading to granulomatous inflammation. The process inflammation gives rise symptoms based on thrombotic or aneurysmal phenomena. This a case report 11-year-old girl diagnosed an urban tertiary care centre India with childhood arteri...

Writing in the journal Current Opinion in Rheumatology Turkish researchers review the current literature on gastrointestinal involvement in different types of vasculitis. They address the variability of gastrointestinal involvement and of clinical findings, as well as treatment. An inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis usually precedes a diagnosis of vasculitis. A systematic review of the litera...

OBJECTIVE The cytokine profile suggests that giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a Th1-driven disease, in which local IFN-gamma plays a critical role in the development of a systemic arteritis. IL-12 is a potent inducer of IFN-gamma and is critically involved in biasing an immune response towards a Th1 pathway. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there was an association between an I...

Glucocorticoids are highly effective in treating polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis, but their use is associated with numerous adverse events. Therefore, it is important to use them for the shortest period of time possible. The published evidence suggests that discontinuation of GC is feasible in a substantial number of patients with polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis ...

Takayasu's arteritis affects most commonly young women, often causing stenotic and occasionally dilated lesions of the medium-to-large-sized arteries with an acute inflammatory signs and symptoms. Here, we report a rare case of Takayasu's arteritis with total occlusion of the abdominal aorta, which was successfully treated with medication alone and asymptomatic over 40 years. Magnetic resonance...