Acute left heart failure caused by Takayasu arteritis: a case report and literature review

Takayasu arteritis is a rare disease. Coronary involvement may appear in patients with Takayasu arteritis. With delayed diagnosis and the difficulty of treatment, Takayasu arteritis patients complicated with coronary abnormalities usually have poor prognosis. We present a rare case of acute left heart failure caused by total occlusion of the left main coronary artery due to Takayasu arteritis. A 30-year-old Chinese woman presented at our hospital with recurrent chest tightness accompanied by dyspnoea. A series of modern imaging methods were used for diagnosis and evaluation of Takayasu arteritis, including invasive angiography, CT angiography, and vascular ultrasound. The patient received drugs therapy including glucocorticoids, immunosuppressants, and cardiovascular drugs, without a reperfusion therapy. Cardiac events, inflammatory marks, and cardiac function were observed during 2-year follow-up period. In this paper, we briefly disscuss the diagnosis and treatment for young women with cardiac complication caused by Takayasu arteritis.