ACR 2022 Tweet by Richard Conway

The treatment of active Takayasu arteritis (TAK) is imperative to quiet vascular inflammation and subsequently maintain vascular integrity while preventing vessel damage. Our upfront management of TAK, beyond glucocorticoids and conventional DMARDs, remains limited to two primary mechanistic…

I recently attended a fascinating lecture by Dr. Anisha Dua on progress in the diagnosis and treatment of large-vessel vasculitis, with a focus on giant cell arteritis (GCA) and Takayasu's arteritis. She opened with what felt like the most honest “state of the union” slide you can show a room full of rheumatologists: steroid burden is still enormous.

Giant-cell arteritis and Takayasu’s arteritis are both large-vessel vasculitides, but each brings its own diagnostic and management challenges. Many of the difficulties overlap because they are rare, heterogeneous, and lack perfect diagnostic tests or specific biomarkers.