The objective of this study was to evaluate traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels in Takayasu arteritis (TA) patients. Twenty-two TA patients and 37 controls were evaluated. TA patients had a higher prevalence of hypertension (63.6% vs. 21.6%, p=0.001) and higher levels of triglycerides (129.5 mg/dL+/-70.8 vs. 88.4 mg/dL+/-60.8, p=0.017) than controls. Mean number of CVD risk factors was 1.64+/-1.22 in TA patients and 1.03+/-1.44 among controls, p=0.030. More TA patients presented at least one CVD risk factor when compared to controls (77.2% vs. 51.3%, p=0.048). ET-1 levels were higher in patients than in controls (1.49 pg/mL+/-0.45 vs. 1.27 pg/mL+/-0.32, p=0.034), however no significant difference was found between patients with active and inactive disease. In this study, TA patients presented a higher prevalence of hypertension, higher levels of triglycerides, and ET-1 than controls.