Endovascular stent implantation for severe pulmonary artery stenosis in aortoarteritis (Takayasu's arteritis).

Symptomatic pulmonary artery stenosis is a relatively uncommon manifestation of aortoarteritis. We describe a patient of aortoarteritis with severe proximal right pulmonary artery stenosis who presented with dyspnea on exertion and central cyanosis. The pulmonary artery stenosis was successfully relieved by percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty and implantation of a balloon-expandable stent. This resulted in immediate improvement in oxygen saturation, disappearance of cyanosis, relief of dyspnea, and marked improvement in right lung perfusion as demonstrated by pre- and postangioplasty technetium lung ventilation-perfusion scans. The changes in the pulmonary arterial wall morphology were detected precisely by intravascular ultrasound imaging. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.