ABSTRACT

Thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO), or Buerger's disease, is an inflammatory vascular disease affecting small and medium-sized arteries and veins. While Buerger's disease is in the strict sense of the word a vasculitis, it differs pathologically from the most common forms of vasculitis because there is a highly inflammatory thrombus present in the vessel lumen with relatively little inflammation in the vessel wall and the absence of fibrinoid necrosis (I). In addition, autoantibody formation and serological markers of inflammation are absent.