Objective
To evaluate pulmonary involvement in Italian patients with Takayasu's arter
itis (TA). Methods A prospective analysis of 15 Italian patients with TA wa
s carried out, including evaluation by perfusion and ventilation lung scint
igraphy (planar and tomographic), standard chest X-ray, spirography and col
or-doppler echocardiography. All the patients were free of respiratory symp
toms when examined.
Results
In all patients standard chest X-rays and ventilation scintigraphies were n
ormal. 9/15 patients showed unmatched segmental perfusion defects (41 by pl
anar evaluation vs. 48 by SPET). The number of defects was greater in the r
ight lung than in the left (26 vs 18), with a higher frequency of moderate
or lar ge defects. Thirteen patients underwent spirography, which proved to
be abnormal in 5 cases. Two of these patients were also positive on scinti
graphy. No patient showed alterations attributable to TA on color-doppler e
chocardiography, except for 3 patients with mild to moderate aortic valve r
egurgitation.
Conclusions
Our results show that vascular pulmonary involvement is frequent in TA (60%
of cases) even in the absence of clinical signs. The planar image, simpler
than the SPET to acquire, was sufficient to make an accurate diagnosis. It
alian patients seem to show a pattern of extra-pulmonary and pulmonary vasc
ular involvement very similar to that reported in Japanese subjects and dif
ferent from that observed in other ethnic groups.