Background/Purpose: In addition to the occlusive vasculitis, hypertension and accelerated atherosclerosis are probably risk factors of the cardiovascular complications in Takayasu arteritis (TA). Although, management of traditional cardiovascular risk factors is recommended to diminish these cardiovascular complications, we still do not know whether traditional risk factors and other comorbid conditions are increased or operative. We looked at the frequency of traditional atherosclerotic risk factors and comorbid conditions among pts with TA.

Methods: Between March and December 2016, we studied consecutive 88 TA pts and 81 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) pts. In addition, 111 hospital workers were studied as healthy controls. Participants were interviewed with the help of a standardized questionnaire that assesses the presence of traditional atherosclerotic risk factors.  The presence of atherosclerosis was not separately assessed. The presence of comorbid conditions was also assessed with the help of the Charlson comorbidity index. Additionally, Framingham coronary heart disease risk score was calculated; however, this was done only for women, because there were only a few male patients in the study cohort and male gender is an independent risk factor in this calculation.  

Results: As shown in Table 1, among the Framingham components, only hypertension was significantly more frequent in TA. When only females were analyzed, Framingham risk score was more likely to be higher only in TA. Framingham score of SLE pts was found to be similar to that of the healthy controls, despite an increased frequency of hypertension observed among SLE pts. Additionally, familial history of cardiovascular diseases and sudden death were significantly more common among the TA pts compared to the SLE pts and healthy controls. Pericardial/pleural and renal diseases were more frequently observed among the SLE pts, (Table 2). On the other hand, cardiovascular and chronic pulmonary diseases were more common in TA pts. The frequency of inflammatory upper/lower back pain and rheumatologic diseases were increased in both TA and SLE. However, inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) were only observed among the TA pts.

Conclusion: Among the traditional atherosclerotic risk factors, only hypertension appears to be increased among the TA pts. The frequencies of IBD and inflammatory upper/lower back pain are substantially high and deserves further scrutiny. Moreover, the increased incidence of cardiovascular and rheumatologic diseases among the first-degree relatives of TA pts suggest that genetic mechanisms may play role in TA.