Clinical studies in 500 patients with aortoarteritis.

Five hundred patients with aortoarteritis were studied in this series. The long-term administration of small dosage of corticosteroid is effective in treating this disease in its active stage. The patients with renal vascular hypertension should be treated by percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty or by surgery if indicated. About one third of the pulsations of the involved arteries were improved. The incidence of complications was 17% and the mortality rate was 11% in this series. Cerebral thrombosis was found as a common complication and hemorrhage as a common cause of death. Three patients died of heart failure without aortic regurgitation. Five-year and ten-year survival rates were 93.1% and 91.1% respectively.