Hayakawa Itaru, Kunimatsu Junwa, Watanabe Riri, Kubota Kazuo, Yoshizawa Atsuto
Department of Internal Medicine, National Center for Global Health and Medicine Hospital, Japan.
Intern Med. 2012;51(24):3431-4. doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.51.8414. Epub 2012 Dec 15.
The early diagnosis and treatment of Takayasu arteritis (TA) is crucial to prevent the devastating complications of vascular insufficiency. This report describes a patient with a persistent fever in whom carotid artery tenderness led to a diagnosis of TA. This case suggests that carotid artery tenderness is a useful physical finding that warrants 2-deoxy-2-[Fluorine-18] fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography to confirm a diagnosis of early TA.
