Takayasu's disease in an Ethiopian

A 26-year-old Ethiopian woman with past history of stroke, presented with complaints of weakness, dyspnea on exertion, headache, and orthopnea. She had severe hypertension, asynchronous pulses, radial-femoral lag, cardiomegaly, and left ventricular hypertrophy. Blood studies were normal. Arteriogram in America showed aortic and mitral incompetence, bilateral subclavian occlusion distal to the origin of the vertebral arteries, with occluded hepatic and superior mesenteric arteries. The infrarenal abdominal aorta and common and external iliac arteries were occluded bilaterally. Renal arteries were normal. Takayasu's arteritis, inactive, was diagnosed. She underwent bilateral carotid-subclavian bypass, thromboendarterectomy of the abdominal aorta, and aorto-iliac bypass grafts. 3 years later she is greatly improved. This is the first report of Takayasu's arteritis from Ethiopia. International studies on the disease are summarized.