Abstract

A Short Note on the Coronary Arteritis: Coronary Vasculitis

Author(s): Kevin Nicholas

A wide variety of diseases with a diverse range of symptoms and severity are referred to as coronary “artery vacuities.” Due to involvement of the coronary microvasculature, stenosis, aneurysm, or spontaneous dissection of large coronaries, as well as vascular thrombosis, clinical manifestations may include pericarditis or myocarditis. Patients with coronary artery vacuities are typically younger and progress their disease more quickly than those with common atherosclerosis. Kawasaki’s disease, Takayasu’s arteritis, polyarteritis nodosa, ANCA-associated vacuities, giant-cell arteritis, and most recently a Kawasaki-like syndrome associated with SARS-COV-2 infection have all been linked to coronary artery vacuities. For the practicing cardiologist, this review will provide a brief description of these conditions, as well as their diagnosis and treatment. A rare but devastating complication of giant cell arteritis, also known as temporal arteritis, is coronary vacuities. It is now recognized that it frequently affects a number of medium and large arteries throughout the body, despite the fact that it was initially given its name for its propensity to attack the superficial temporal arteries. Here, we describe two cases of coronary artery giant cell arteritis, one of which was discovered at the post-mortem and one of which was successfully treated with drug-eluting coronary stents and immunosuppressive therapy.