Treatments Most people with Takayasu’s arteritis respond to steroids such as prednisone. The usual starting dose is approximately 1 milligram per kilogram of body weight per day (for most people, this is approximately 60 milligrams a day). Because of the significant side effects of long-term high-dose prednisone use, the starting dose is tapered over several weeks to a dose that controls symptoms while limiting the side effects of steroids. Promising results are achieved with mycophenolate and tocilizumab. If treatment is not kept to a high standard, long-term damage or death can occur. Patients who do not respond to steroids may require revascularization, either via vascular bypass or angioplasty and stenting. Outcomes following revascularization vary depending on the severity of the underlying disease. History The first case of Takayasu’s arteritis was described in 1908 by Japanese ophthalmologist Mikito Takayasu at the Annual Meeting of the Japan Ophthalmology Society. Takayasu described a peculiar "wreathlike" appearance of the blood vessels in the back of the eye (retina). Two Japanese physicians at the same meeting (Drs. Onishi and Kagoshima) reported similar eye findings in individuals whose wrist pulses were absent. It is now known that the blood vessel malformations that occur in the retina are an angiogenic response to the arterial narrowings in the neck and that the absence of pulses noted in some people occurs because of narrowings of the blood vessels to the arms. The eye findings described by Takayasu are rarely seen in patients from North America and British Columbia. References Bibliography External links Vascular diseases Vascular-related cutaneous conditions Steroid-responsive inflammatory conditions Systemic connective tissue disorders