Clinical Manifestations, Differential Diagnosis, and Laboratory Markers

Abstract

As a large-vessel arteritis, Takayasu’s arteritis (TAK) predominantly affects aorta and its major branches. Arterial stenosis, occlusion, and aneurysms lead to various signs and symptoms such as consitutional features, extremity pain, claudication, light-headedness, bruits, absent or diminished pulses, and loss of blood pressure. As acute-phase reactants, ESR and C-reactive protein are frequently advocated for disease assessment of TAK. Recently, a member of pentraxin family, PTX-3 was suggested to be a discriminative marker for active disease in TAK, with controversial results. Giant-cell arteritis, accelerated atherosclerosis, and various non-inflammatory vascular disorders have clinical similarities with TAK and should be investigated in the differential diagnosis. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.