Introduction:
Takayasu arteritis (TA), also known as pulseless disease, is a rare
systemic inflammatory condition that primarily affects the medium and
large arteries, including their branches. It predominantly occurs in
young Asian women, with a reported worldwide incidence of only 1 to 2
per million people1.
Women are more frequently affected than men2, with a
varying incidence rate in different parts of the globe. Male to female
ratio is 1:8 in western countries and 1:3 in Japan3.
It is a chronic disease primarily impacting the aorta and its large
branches. Early diagnosis is crucial to prevent severe end organ damage,
including stroke and ischemic heart disease4.
However, diagnosis is often challenging due to the non-specific systemic
inflammatory symptoms present in the early phase, which can lead to an
insidious clinical course until vascular ischemic complications
emerge5.
The disease typically progresses through two phases: an initial
pre-occlusive inflammatory phase that may go unnoticed, followed by an
occlusive phase characterized by ischemic vascular symptoms resulting
from arterial lesions such as stenosis, occlusion, or
aneurysm6.
Extremity pain, claudication, bruits, pulselessness and unrecordable
blood pressure are the common features of patient visiting health care
facility. However, presentation with acute visual loss or stroke may be
particularly rare7.
18% of patients with large vessel vasculitis presents with unilateral
visual loss at diagnosis, often resulting in irreversible damage. Early
administration of pulsed intravenous methylprednisolone may provide some
benefit to patients experiencing early onset of visual
symptoms8.
While numerous systematic reviews have explored ocular manifestations in
various systemic diseases, few have focused on the eye involvement in
Takayasu arteritis.