ABSTRACT
Takayasu arteritis [TA] is a chronic inflammatory disease of the aorta and its major branches. It most often affects young women in the second and third decades of life. TA has been reported in children as young as six-month-old to adults of all ages. The initial complaints may be non-specific constitutional symptoms [e.g., fever, weight loss, lethargy]. Because these complaints lack specificity, the correct diagnosis may be delayed for months or years. There have been reported cases of TA associated with other auto-immune diseases as well as cases of atypical initial localizations [e.g., pulmonary] which had a late onset of disease. We present a case of TA in a 52-year-old Srilankan woman referred from the polyclinic with a chief complaint of headache of three months duration and arthralgia of 15-year duration