Takayasu's arteritis: A rare cause of acute abdomen in a caucasian male

Abstract

Takayasu's arteritis is often thought of as the pulseless disease of Oriental females. While it is certainly true that the majority of reports of this uncommon condition have come from the Orient and involve women, Takayasu 's disease may also occur infrequently both in female and, exceptionally, in male Caucasians. The propensity of the disease to affect the main vessels of the aortic arch is well known, but it is worthy of note that only type I disease, which comprises merely 8% of patients, affects the arch and its vessels exclusively. Type II disease (11%) and type III disease (65%) both classically affect the abdominal aorta and its branches, along with the descending aorta and the aortic arch respectively. Type IV disease affects the pulmonary artery and may or may not affect other sites, l The diagnosis of the disease is made on clinical and angiographic grounds. Angiograms typically show arterial lesions only in the aorta and its primary branches and, to a lesser extent, in the pulmonary artery. Histopathology, al though useful, is not specific for the disease which has a histological spectrum of appearance overlapping those of granulomatous arteritis and sclerosing arteritis.2 While Takayasu 's disease may present in m a n y ways depending on the vessels affected, we have been unable to find any previous report of its presentation as an acute abdomen requiring emergency laparotomy.