Takayasu's disease with cutaneous involvement.

Takayasu's arteritis (TA) is a chronic inflammatory and fibrosing arteriopathy that can also involve cutaneous vessels. The disease typically presents with a prepulseless phase that overlaps or is followed by the characteristic pulseless stage. In both phases of TA, cutaneous manifestations may be present. Lesions considered to be 'specifically' associated with TA have been described most frequently simulating erythema nodosum, erythema induratum and pyoderma gangrenosum. We report 2 Caucasian patients with TA and nodular cutaneous lesions. Nine skin biopsies from these patients were studied. A necrotizing vasculitis was present in 5 biopsies. We review those patients with TA and well-documented cutaneous manifestations in the English literature, with special interest in nodular lesions, the most frequent cutaneous manifestation of TA in Caucasian patients. Biopsies from lesions with similar morphology frequently show different histological findings.