Cardiac Insights in Takayasu's Arteritis: Echocardiographic Differences in Active Takayasu Arteritis

Introduction

Takayasu arteritis mainly affects the aorta and its main branches. Several clinometric tools have been proposed for the assessment of disease activity. Echocardiography is a noninvasive imaging method useful in the study of cardiovascular manifestations. This study aimed to describe the differences in echocardiographic parameters between conventional and new modalities in patients with Takayasu arteritis with disease activity according to three real-life clinical scales.

Methods

A prospective observational study was designed with patients meeting the ACR/EULAR 2022 criteria for Takayasu arteritis and a rheumatology outpatient clinic at a cardiovascular disease referral center. Disease activity was measured via the Dabague-Reyes (DR) score, National Institutes of Health score, and Indian Takayasu arteritis activity score. All patients underwent echocardiographic evaluation with conventional and new modalities.

Results

Fifty-two patients with a diagnosis of TAK were studied; 48 (92.3%) patients were female, with a mean age of 41 ± 17.6 years. Numano V classification was the most common (80%). Twenty-five patients had active disease according to any score, which was correlated with a significant reduction in tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) (19.45 ± 1.9 mm), abnormal left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic diameter, abnormal deceleration time (DT), and abnormal left atrial (LA) volume.

Conclusions

Some conventional and novel echocardiographic parameters are associated with active BP. These alterations could add weight to the staging of disease activity. These echocardiographic findings may also be observed differently according to the clinical form of disease measurement. However, further studies are needed to confirm these differences via echocardiography.