Large‐vessel vasculitis

Introduction The vasculitides and their treatments pose great risks for patients and difficult challenges for physicians. Clinicians are confronted with the task of treating diseases for which the understanding of pathophysiology is incomplete and the etiologies, in most cases, remain unknown. Nevertheless, the past several years have witnessed studies of systemic vasculitis on an unprecedented scale, including multicenter clinical trials. In this 2-part series, we review the recent vasculitis literature with the intention of addressing questions that confront physicians regarding the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions. This first article focuses on the large-vessel vasculitides—giant cell arteritis (GCA) and Takayasu’s arteritis (TA). The second article will focus on questions relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of smalland medium-vessel vasculitides.