Giant cell arteritis limited to large elastic pulmonary arteries.

Abstract

Pulmonary arteritis usually affects medium or small muscular vessels and is a well-recognised feature of dis- eases such as Wegener's granulomatosis, severe pul- monary hypertension, sarcoidosis, lymphomatoid granulomatosis, necrotising sarcoid granulomatosis, and the disseminated form of temporal arteritis. Medium to small sized pulmonary arteries may also be involved in connective tissue disorders such as systemic lupus erythe- matosus and rheumatoid disease. Takayashu's disease may affect the large elastic pulmonary arteries but vasculitis limited to these vessels is exceptionally rare. This paper reports such a case.