[Myocardiopathy and Takayasu's disease. Apropos of a case]

The possibility of cardiac involvement in Takayasu's disease is well known, but this involvement generally appears to be secondary to reno-vascular hypertension or to pulmonary arteritis and, exceptionally, as a result of coronary disease. In the case reported here, the inflammatory myocardial lesion localised to the left ventricle was demonstrated while the patient was still alive. It was responsible for an episode of severe heart failure which finally resolved after 2 years. The inflammatory involvement of the myocardium was associated with laboratory signs of inflammation and with inflammatory arterial lesions. Several haemodynamic investigations were performed to follow the course of the disease. The diagnosis was confirmed by myocardial biopsies and by the pulmonary arterial and renal arterial involvement. A review of the literature revealed that this condition was extremely rare and has only been proven in a few autopsy cases.