Background: Takayasu arteritis is a rare, chronic, granulomatous systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology and a few cases have been reported in pregnancy. In pregnancies concomitant with Takayasu arteritis or after diagnosis, Takayasu arteritis negatively affects pregnancy by increasing 13-fold the odds of complications such as hypertensive disorders. The best recommendations in this scenario are still to be made.
Case presentation: We present a case of 21-year-old, gravid 1, Mexican woman of Mestizo descent with chronic hypertension diagnosed since she was 15-years old who presented severe hypertension during pregnancy (early second trimester); the diagnosis of hypertensive disorder of pregnancy was ruled out requiring first-line and second-line antihypertensive therapy without serious associated maternal or fetal morbidity.
Conclusions: Takayasu arteritis and pregnancy play an important role in maternal and fetal outcomes. Efforts should be made to further investigate the Takayasu arteritis diagnosis in pregnant women with refractory hypertension.
Keywords: Hypertensive disorder in pregnancy; Refractory hypertension; Takayasu arteritis.