Akayasu Arteritis - Symptoms and Signs and Complications

Symptoms, Signs and Complications

Takayasu Arteritis may show an early stage of fever, fatigue and joint aches and a late stage of obstruction of blood flow and formation of aneurysms.

The patient may initially show symptoms of low grade fever, tiredness, night sweats, headache, and joint aches. The disease may stop at this stage or may continue into the late phase. Blood tests show anemia and high ESR. This stage may not be observed in all cases.

The late phase occurs due to blockade of blood flow through the arteries. The patient shows the following features:

• The patient may feel leg pain with walking if the blood supply to the legs is affected. The doctor may not be able to feel the patient's pulse. Blood pressure readings may be different in different arms.
• The doctor may be able to hear a sound called a bruit when he keeps a stethoscope over the artery especially the carotid artery. This indicates flow of blood through a narrowed portion of an artery.
• The patient's blood pressure may be high. This often occurs when the arteries supplying to the kidney are affected
• Lack of blood supply to the abdominal organs may result in pain in the abdomen
• Visual disturbances may occur due to lack of blood supply to the eye and damage to the retina
• Dizziness, stroke or seizures may occur if the blood supply to the brain is affected or if the blood pressure is too high.

• The arterial wall may thin out leading to aneurysms. These could burst causing fatal bleeding.
• The aortic heart valve may malfunction. This may result in back flow of blood from the aorta into the heart. This phenomenon is called aortic regurgitation.

Death could occur due to heart failure, heart attack, kidney failure or bursting of aneurysm.

References:

1. Ashima Gulati & Arvind Bagga. Large vessel vasculitis. Pediatr Nephrol (2010) 25:1037�1048
2. S L Johnston, R J Lock, M M Gompels. Takayasu arteritis: a review. J Clin Pathol 2002;55:481�486