Takayasu’s Arteritis

Takayasu’s arteritis (also called Takayasu disease, pulseless disease or TAK) is an uncommon form of vasculitis or inflammation in your blood vessels. It affects your biggest arteries, like your aorta (the main blood vessel that leaves your heart) and arteries that branch off of your aorta and bring oxygenated blood from your heart to your body tissues.

Affected arteries include the ones that supply blood to your arms, and travel through your neck to provide blood to your brain.

With Takayasu’s arteritis, inflammation damages your arteries, making parts of them weak and stretched out. This can lead to an aneurysm. Your arteries can also become inflamed and narrowed, resulting in restricted blood flow. Also, blood vessels can become completely blocked (called an occlusion). Less commonly, arteries that provide blood flow to your heart, intestines, kidneys and legs may be involved.

Who does Takayasu’s arteritis affect?

TAK often affects children and people who are between the ages of 20 to 40 and assigned female at birth. At diagnosis, people with Takayasu’s arteritis are often between 15 and 35 years old. About 80% to 90% of people with this condition were assigned female at birth.

Healthcare providers see Takayasu’s arteritis more often in Japan and in people of Mexican, Indian and East Asian descent.

Every year in the United States, providers diagnose 2 to 3 new cases of TAK per 1 million Americans.

How does Takayasu’s arteritis affect my body?

Narrowed vessels cause decreased blood flow to the areas they supply with blood.

The changes that happen in TAK are often gradual, allowing alternate routes of blood flow to develop. These alternate routes are often smaller “side roads” that may or may not be able to carry as much blood as the original arteries did.

In general, blood flow beyond an area of narrowing is almost always enough to allow tissues to survive. In rare cases, if there aren’t enough alternate blood vessels, tissue that doesn’t get blood and oxygen will die.