Takayasu's Arteritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Abstract
Takayasu's arteritis could be briefly defined as an inflammatory process occurring almost exclusively in females in the reproductive age and most commonly involving the great vessels arising from the aortic arch resulting in stenosis and eventually in obliteration or thrombosis. It has been given various names, such as pulseless disease, aortic arch syndrome, branchial arteritis, chronic subclaviocarotid syndrome, syndrome of obliteration of the supra-aortic branches, brachiocephalic arteritis, young female arteritis, and reversed coarctation. Judge et al1 have discussed the different nomenclatures and preferred the term "Takayasu's arteritis," which we will follow in the present report. It has been said recently1 that the etiology of this disorder remains as obscure today as when Savory first described it in 1856.2 In a few early cases from Japan, tuberculous infection was incriminated, because a positive tuberculin test was present in all of the cases.3 Harbitz4 suspected a streptococcal