Mid-term Follow-up of Arch Vessel Angioplasty in Patients with Takayasu Arteritis

Abstract

Background: We performed a prospective longitudinal study to report the mid-term follow-up of arch vessel angioplasty in patients with Takayasu’s arteritis following the use of self-expanding stents (SES) or balloon-expandable stents (coronary drug-eluting stents [DES] or peripheral bare metal stents). Methods: Eighteen consecutive Takayasu’s arteritis patients with arch vessel involvement undergoing angioplasty were included in the study. Ostial lesions were treated with DES; other lesions were treated with SES. Twelve patients were treated with 15 SES and eight patients were treated with 14 DES. Lesions were quantified by quantitative angiography before and after the procedure and during check-up angiography at 6 months to compare lumen dimensions with the immediate post-procedural results. Check-up angiography was performed in 10 patients with 13 SES and in six patients with DES. Results: SES had an immediate mean (±SD) lumen gain of 2.95 ± 1.1 mm. At 6 months, although there was a lumen loss of 2.01 ± 1.13 mm, there was a persistent mean lumen gain of 0.94 ± 1.16 mm. Similarly, DES resulted in an immediate mean lumen gain of 2.01 ± 1.13 mm, with a lumen loss of 1.6 ± 0.8 mm, but a persistent mean lumen gain of 0.40 ± 1.26 mm, at 6 months. Conclusion: We showed that both SES and DES may be used to treat patients with arch vessel involvement, with comparable results at the 6-month follow-up, and could provide these patients with significant and persistent symptom relief.