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Rana et al. Neuroimmunol Neuroinflammation 2016;3:192-5 Neuroimmunology and
DOI: 10.20517/2347-8659.2015.52
Neuroinflammation

www.nnjournal.net
Case Report Open Access

Takayasu’s arteritis - aphasia as an initial

presentation

Davinder Singh Rana, Anuradha Batra, Ish Anand, Samir Patel, Pooja Gupta

Department of Neurology, Old building block, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Old Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi 110060, India.
Correspondence to: Dr. Davinder Singh Rana, Department of Neurology, Old building block, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Old Rajinder Nagar, New
Delhi 110060, India. E-mail: davinder1966@gmail.com

How to cite this article: Rana DS, Batra A, Anand I, Patel S, Gupta P. Takayasu’s arteritis - aphasia as an initial presentation. Neuroimmunol
Neuroinflammation 2016;3:192-5.
ABSTRACT
Article history: Takayasu arteritis (TA) is an uncommon disease of young women, characterized by
Received: 18-11-2015 granulomatous vasculitis of medium and large arteries. Neurological involvement is reported in
Accepted: 13-07-2016 only a minority of patients and occurrence of neurological syndromes as the first manifestation
Published: 31-08-2016 of disease has been rarely reported. We present clinical, laboratory and imaging findings of
a 40 years old lady with TA, who initially presented with clinical manifestations of stroke
Key words: in form of aphasia. The rarity of the disease and especially such a presentation can cause
Takayasu considerable delay in the diagnosis and treatment.
arteritis
stroke
aphasia

INTRODUCTION arteries, especially aorta and its branches. During
[2]
the course of the disease, neurological involvement
Atherosclerotic and embolic disease is common causes (such as transient ischemic attack, stroke, and
of ischemic stroke in both young and old patients. In cranial nerve palsies) is seen in 10-20% of cases. [3-5]
the young however, a wider array of systemic and However, occurrence of neurological syndromes as
vascular diseases must be given consideration. the first manifestation of the disease has been rarely
Systemic inflammatory or autoimmune diseases, reported. [6-9]
hypercoagulable states and vascular diseases such
as dissection are responsible for about 20% of cases, CASE REPORT
while no certain cause is found in about one-third of
young stroke victims. [1] A 40-year-old Indian female with no significant past
medical history presented with sudden onset aphasia.
Takayasu arteritis (TA) is a chronic inflammatory There was no history of limb weakness or facial
disease of unknown etiology, characterized by asymmetry. There was no known family history of
granulomatous vasculitis of large and medium sized cardiac, cerebrovascular or autoimmune disease. On

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