Basilar Tip Aneurysm in Takayasu Arteritis

Takayasu arteritis is a chronic, inflammatory, progressive and idiopathic disease that mainly effects the aorta, its branches and pulmonary artery. It causes narrowing and occlusion of major vessels which manifest as a cerebrovascular insufficiency. Intracranial aneurysms are rarely observed in these patients. We report a case of basilar tip aneurysm with Takayasu arteritis. To our knowledge only 26 cases of Takayasu disease with basilar aneurysm have been reported in the literature. Management of Takayasu disease includes immunosuppression therapy; but coil embolization of co-incidental aneurysm can be hampered by limited and tortuous access routes. Hence, management of these patients requires great care and accurate selection of suitable guiding catheter, microcatheters and microwires. Microsurgery is the treatment of choice in case of intracranial aneurysm due to limited and tortuous access routes, however, coil embolization can be done with great care and accurate selection of suitable guiding catheter, microcatheters and microwires.