This is a case report of a 7-year-old child with the onset of the manifestations of Takayasu's disease (primary aortitis) at the age of 7 years. She exhibited a "prepulseless" stage with systemic symptoms of fever, fatigue, and weight loss. This early stage was also characterized by arthralgias and cardiac enlargement with laboratory findings of an elevated sedimentation rate and moderate leukocytosis. Within several months of the onset of the symptoms, she exhibited a "pulseless" or occlusive stage of the disease with absent arterial pulses of the arms and transient diminution of the carotid artery pulsations bilaterally. During this stage of her illness, she developed aneurysmal dilatation of the ascending aorta. Over a 3-year period she became asymptomatic with the disappearance of her anemia. Biplane angiocardiography demonstrated marked dilatation of the ascending aortic arch with associated discrete aneurysmal changes in the lower thoracic aorta. The patient recovered from her illness and remains asymptomatic 8 years following the onset of symptoms. A review of the literature is presented which emphasizes the rarity of this disease in children in this country. Since aortitis may involve the aorta at any level, it is suggested that the name "Takayasu's disease" be extended to include those cases with involvement of the thoracic and abdominal aorta in addition to those with the classical picture of aortic arch involvement and absent pulses in the upper extremities.