Leriche Memorial Lecture at 24th World Congress 'Takayasu's arteritis in Asia'

An uncommon type of chronic and progressive arteritis characterized by pecu liar ocular findings, an absent radial pulse and hypersensitivity of the ca rotid body and sinus was first described in 1908 by Takayasu, a Japanese op hthalmologist. This disorder was defined as a clinical entity by Shimizu in 1948. Takayasu's arteritis was initially thought to be confined to the Ori ent. Subsequent reports however indicated that this condition affected all races and has a worldwide distribution. It is also referred to as pulseless disease, aortitis syndrome, and non-specific aortoarteritis. The current w idespread interest in this disease has mainly been in the Japanese literatu re. Takayasu's arteritis predominates in women in the second and third decade. Recently the classical pulseless disease has declined and symptoms resultin g from hypertension and aortic regurgitation are recognised as the most imp ortant factors in prognosis. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery. All rights reserved.