The analysis of the clinical records diagnosed as Takayasu's arteritis with pulmonary vascular involvement

Abstract

To enhance the understanding of Takayasu's arteritis with pulmonary vascular involvement through the analyses on clinical features, imaging findings, misdiagnoses and treatments. A retrospective study was conducted to analyze the clinical records of patients diagnosed as Takayasu's arteritis with pulmonary vascular involvement admitted to Beijing Chaoyang Hospital from January 2004 to December 2014. In recent 10 years, there were 90 patients diagnosed as Takayasu's arteritis in Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, 33 of them were involved with pulmonary arterial, which account for 36.7%, while 12 cases were involved with pulmonary arteries alone, which account for 13.3% of all. Among the 33 patients, dyspnea (23 cases, 69.7%) was the most common symptom, followed by hemoptysis (19 cases, 57.6%) and Vascular murmur (23 cases, 69.7%), pleural effusion (8 cases, 24.2%), unequal blood pressure of upper limbs (4 cases, 12.1%) were the main signs. The diagnostic time varied significantly, from 1 month to 10 years. 21 patients were misdiagnosed and the misdiagnosis rate was 63.6%. Takayasu's arteritis with pulmonary vascular involvement is not rare. The clinical manifestation of Takayasu's arteritis is unspecific and misdiagnosis rate is relatively high. Therefore, we should raise awareness of Takayasu's arteritis and detailed clinical examination will be helpful to reduce the misdiagnosis rate.