[Takayasu arteritis in pediatric patients].

Takayasu's arteritis is a chronic inflammatory disease that primarily affects the large vessels, such as the aorta and its branches. It represents the third most frequent vasculitis during pediatric age. Our objective was to describe clinical and complementary exams features as well as treatment modalities of a case series of pediatric patients. We present 11 patients (10 girls) with median age at onset of 8 years (range: 2-15). The median diagnosis delay was 16 months (range: 2-96). Clinical presentations were lower limb claudication, arterial hypertension, CNS involvement, presence of murmurs, systemic symptoms, lymphadenopathy, chest pain, abdominal pain and arthritis. Laboratory tests showed: elevated ESR, anemia and trombocytosis. Vascular imaging studies exhibited stenosis, dilatation, occlussion and aneurysms. The outcome of the disease was persistent active condition (1 patient), relapse (4 patients), remission (3 patients), motor sequelae (1 patient) and death (2 patients). All patients were treated with steroids and immunosuppressants. Takayasu 's arteritis is a condition that can potentially be life-threatening. The diagnosis should be suspected in a variety of clinical manifestations during childhood.