Radiology and biomarkers in assessing disease activity in Takayasu arteritis.

Takayasu arteritis (TA) is a rare and chronic large-vessel vasculitis that predominantly affects aorta and its main branches. It occurs mainly in females <40 years. Precise assessment of disease activity is one of the major difficulties in the long-term management of TA. Until now, the accuracy of traditional activity index is still controversial. During these years, due to rapid development of radiological technology and researches of pathogenesis, new measurements and biomarkers have been applied to monitor disease activity for TA. Thus, in this review, we mainly discuss the benefits and limitations of recent developments of radiology and biomarkers for disease activity assessment in TA.