Intestinal thromboangiitis obliterans in a woman: a case report and discussion of chronic ischemic changes.

Although traditionally regarded as a disease of distal extremities, mesenteric vasculature can also manifest thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO). There are 31 cases of intestinal TAO in the English literature and the majority of subjects are male. However, cases of women with TAO are becoming more common, coinciding with an increased incidence of smoking in this sex. We describe the sixth case of a female patient with classic extremity manifestations paralleled by paroxysms of abdominal angina. Intestinal TAO can mimic extremity disease of smoldering chronic ischemia punctuated by unpredictable acute episodes of gangrene. In the present case, chronic ischemia manifested as partial bowel obstruction due to stricture deformity of the ileum and profound adipocyte atrophy of mesentery.