Retrospective Study of Takayasu Arteritis

This study retrospectively enrolled 190 TAK patients admitted to the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, from October 2014 to June 2021. All patients were diagnosed with TAK according to the criteria for the classification of TAK developed by the American College of Rheumatology in 1990 [14 (link)]. Patients with other autoimmune diseases, liver and kidney dysfunction, cancer, or infections were excluded from the study.
Disease activity was assessed using a modified version of Kerr’s criteria [NIH (National Institutes of Health) score]; ITAS-A (Indian Takayasu’s Arteritis Activity Score with acute-phase reactants), and ITAS2010 (Indian Takayasu’s Arteritis Activity Score) [15 (link), 16 (link)]. One item of IgG, immunoglobulin (IgA), or immunoglobulin (IgM) is higher than the normal range [IgA (g/L): 1.0–4.2, IgG (g/L): 8.4–17.4, IgM (g/L): 0.3–2.2] which was defined as the elevated immunoglobulin group. Immunoglobulins were detected by an automatic analyzer (Hitachi 7600–120, Tokyo, Japan).
This retrospective study was conducted following the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University (number:2022244X).