Table 1. Summary of main characteristics and overall risk of bias of diagnostic studies on ultrasound in Takayasu arteritis (TAK).

Study	Patients (n)Female (n) (%)	Study design	Inclusion criteria	Reference standard	Investigated structures	US elementary lesions	Overall risk of bias
Lefebvre et al23	4341 (95)	Cross-sectional	Clinical diagnosis of TAK*	1990 ACR criteria	Carotid, subclavian, femoral	Stenosis, occlusion, aneurysm, ↑ IMT	Moderate
Raninen et al16	1614 (88)	Cross-sectional	Clinical diagnosis of TAK†	Angiography	Carotid, subclavian, femoral, abdominal aorta	Aneurysm, dilatation, ↑ IMT, wall calcification	High
Sun et al 33	1616 (100)	Retrospective cohort	Clinical diagnosis of TAK‡	Ishikawa’s criteria	Carotid, subclavian, vertebral	Stenosis, occlusion, ↑ IMT	High
Maeda et al24	2323 (100)	Cross-sectional	Clinical diagnosis of TAK†	Angiography	Carotid	Dilatation,↑ IMT/macaroni sign, occlusion/stuffed macaroni sign	High
Taniguchi et al 25	2220 (91)	Retrospective cohort	Clinical diagnosis of TAK§	Angiography	Carotid	Stenosis, occlusion, ↑ IMT	High
Zieliński et al26	1815 (83)	Cross-sectional	Clinical diagnosis of TAK†	Clinical evaluation	Carotid, subclavian, vertebral	Stenosis, occlusion, ↑ IMT	High
Ucar et al27	5044 (88)	Cross-sectional	Clinical diagnosis of TAK*	1990 ACR criteria	Carotid	Stenosis, dilatation, ↑ IMT, wall calcification	High
Raninen et al15	1513 (87)	Cross-sectional	Clinical diagnosis of TAK†	Angiography	Carotid, subclavian, abdominal aorta	Stenosis, occlusion	High

Retrospective and case–control studies are italicised.

^*1990 ACR criteria.

^†No criteria.

^‡Ishikawa’s criteria.

^§Aortitis Syndrome Research Committee of Japan.

ACR, American College of Rheumatology; IMT, intima-media thickness.