Aortitis Increases Risk of Relapse and Vascular Events in Takayasu Arteritis
Takayasu arteritis (TA) is a rare panarteritis disease of large vessels including the aorta and its main branches; with an incidence rate of 1.11 per million person-years, it affects mostly women between 20 and 30 years.1 Long-term prognosis is marked by a high relapse rate with need of multiple-line immunosuppressive agents and vascular morbidity due to arterial lesions leading to cardiovascular complications or interventions. Some risk factors have been identified to be associated with higher relapse rate, such as the presence at diagnosis of elevated inflammatory biomarkers, carotidynia, and male sex.