[Takayasu-type arteriopathies. Apropos of 4 cases observed in Ivory Coast]

Report of 4 cases of Takayasu type arteriopathy observed in the internal medicine department of Treichville Hospital (Abidjan University). During a one year study the prevalence appeared high in African women: 0.4 p. 100 of all female admittances; 1.2 of the female patients under 35 years; 2 p. 100 of the females admitted for cardiovascular disease. Diagnosis criteria are studied: epidemiological criteria (young age, with a mean value of 21 years); clinical and biological criteria: high blood pressure associated with the absence of one or several arterial peripheric pulses and the presence of one or several arterial murmurs; biological criteria which are negative in the four cases this negativity indicating an occlusive phase. Aortography is the main diagnosis support, showing the situation of the lesions, permitting a topographic classification and giving the mechanisms of blood hypertension with, sometimes, a therapeutic consequence. In one case an inflammatory condition of the aorta has been observed at the media adventitia junction. A systematic study of etiology has brought no evidence of another possible diagnosis. Pathogenic role of tuberculosis is suspected but had not yet been demonstrated.