Clinical Characteristics of Heart Involvement in Chinese Patients with Takayasu Arteritis

Objective. To understand the characteristics of heart involvement in Chinese patients with Takayasu arteritis (TA). Methods. The medical charts of 411 patients with TA (325 women, 86 men) were retrospectively reviewed. The comparison of clinical manifestations was carried out between the patients with TA with (n = 164) and without (n = 247) heart involvement. Results. The median age at disease onset was 23.0 years (18.0–30.0) in 411 patients with TA, and 23.0 years (17.3–30.0) in 164 patients with heart involvement. The disease duration of the heart involvement group (median: 24.0 mos) was significantly longer than those patients without heart involvement (the control group, median: 16.0 mos). Hypertension (57.3% vs 46.6%; p = 0.033), renal dysfunction (17.1% vs 7.7%; p = 0.003), and bruit in the subclavian artery (45.1% vs 34.4%; p = 0.029) were more common in the heart involvement group than patients without. Valvular abnormalities were found in 134 (81.7%) patients in the heart involvement group, myocardial abnormalities in 26 (15.9%), and coronary artery abnormalities in 19 patients (11.6%). The age at onset (yrs) and disease duration (mos) of patients with myocardial, valvular, and coronary arterial abnormalities were 18.8/13.0, 23.8/23.5, and 26.8/57.0, respectively. In the heart involvement group, 22 patients (84.6%) with myocardial abnormalities, 15 (78.9%) with coronary arterial abnormalities, and 89 (66.4%) with valvular abnormalities had Numano type V vessel involvement. The level of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein was higher in the heart involvement group (median: 10.0 mg/l), and the difference was significant when compared to the control group (median: 7.0 mg/l; p = 0.017). Conclusion. Patients with TA complicated with cardiac abnormalities are not rare, especially in patients with Numano type V vessel involvement. We suggest that echocardiogram screening may be a helpful tool to understand the whole feature of patients with TA.