Milestones in thromboangiitis obliterans: A position paper of the VaS-european independent foundation in angiology/vascular medicine

• Main Authors: Bahare Fazeli, Pavel Poredos, Malay Patel, Peter Klein-Weigel, Mariella Catalano, Edwin Stephen, Mussaad M. Al Salman, Louay Altarazi, Abul H. Bashar, Benjamin Chua, Mary P. Colgan, Ivan Cvjetko, Sanjay Desai, Evangelos P. Dimakakos, Dilek Erer, Katalin Farkas, Gerry R. Fowkes, Grigorios Gerotziafas, Emad Hussein, Mihai Ionac, Takehisa Iwai, Oguz Karahan, Endre Kolossvary, Albert Kota, Matija Kozak, Knut Kroger, Prabhu P. Kumar, Aaron Liew, Rafal Malecki, Mohammad H. Najafi, Dan Mircea Olinic, Sandeep R. Pandey, Zsolt Pecsvarady, Hassan Ravari, Vimalin Samuel, Gerit Schernthaner, Dheepak Selvaraj, Nuttawut Sermsathanasawadi, Hiva Sharebiani, Agata Stanek, Andrzej Szuba, Hossein Taheri, Jean C. Wautrecht, Mustafa Hakan Zor
• Other Authors: Siriraj Hospital
• Format: Review
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Medicine
• Online Access: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/78567
• Institution: Mahidol University

Even today thromboangiitis obliterans has disease features that remain misunderstood or underappreciated. The epidemiology, etiology and pathophysiology of the disease are still unclear. Biomarkers and disease activity markers are lacking, thus clinical assessment is difficult. We are still struggling to establish unique diagnostic, staging and treatment criteria. This is an academic-collaborative effort to describe the pathophysiology, the clinical manifestations, the diagnostic approach, and the challenges of management of patients with TAO. A systematic search for relevant studies dating from 1900 to the end of 2020 was performed on the PubMed, SCOPUS, and Science Direct databases. Given the intriguing nature of presentation of TAO, its management, to some extent is not only different in different regions of the world but also varies within the same region. Following this project, we discovered ambiguity, overlap and lack of clear-cut criteria for management of TAO. An international group of experts however came to one conclusion. They all agree that management of TAO needs a call for action for a renewed global look with multi-center studies, to update the geographical distribution of the disease and to establish a unique set of diagnostic criteria and a consensus-based guideline for best treatment based on current evidence.