title: Buerger's disease in a 19-year-old woman.
abstract: A 19-year-old female college student had numbness and the sensation of coldness of her left toes. She had a 3-year smoking history. Gangrene of the left foot developed rapidly. Angiography revealed peripheral arterial occlusion of both legs and arms. Detailed laboratory examination excluded collagen disease, a hypercoagulable state, and juvenile atherosclerosis. Below-knee amputation of the left leg was performed. Typical histologic findings of Buerger's disease were observed in the crural arteries and saphenous veins. The clinical course was uneventful after the patient stopped smoking. This is the second case report of Buerger's disease in a woman in the second decade of life. It is important that a correct diagnosis of Buerger's disease be established, because the disease process is benign, compared with collagen disease, if the patient stops smoking.
authors.affiliation: Division of Vascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan. matsu@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsushita
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuzuya
authors.forename: Masayoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Naomichi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nishikimi
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oba
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yano
authors.forename: Kimihiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Komori
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000671:Amputation, Surgical; D000792:Angiography; D005260:Female; D005528:Foot / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D005734:Gangrene / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D012907:Smoking; D013919:Thromboangiitis Obliterans / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery