Giant cell arteritis is a systemic granulomatous vasculitis affecting medium to large arteries. An arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy is the most common cause of permanent visual loss. Giant cell arteritis is very rare among Asians. We report six patients with biopsy-proven arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. Demographic data, clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, tr...

Criteria for the classification of giant cell (temporal) arteritis were developed by comparing 214 patients who had this disease with 593 patients with other forms of vasculitis. For the traditional format classification, 5 criteria were selected: age 1 5 0 years at disease onset, new onset of localized headache, temporal artery tenderness or decreased temporal artery pulse, elevated erythrocyt...

A 62-year-old woman presented with 4 months of neck, shoulder, and hip pain, morning stiffness, and elevated inflammatory markers compatible with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). Cervical spine imaging demonstrated ill-defined enhancement in posterior neck soft tissues (figure 1), consistent with interspinous bursitis. She reported right-sided headache. Brain magnetic resonance angiography demonst...

Giant cell arteritis is an important cause of blindness in the elderly. Often vision may be lost because of a delay in diagnosis. The commonest ophthalmic presentation is anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy with optic disc pallor and swelling; also recognised are diptopia, occlusion of the central retinal artery, and amaurosis fugax.' These, in the presence of an increased erythrocyte sedimenta...

The work which has led to this report was undertaken in an attempt to improve the diagnostic accuracy and thereby the treatment of giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica. Whether these conditions are the same, related, or quite different diseases is a well-known problem; detailed studies have provided support for all three possibilities (Gordon, Rennie, and Branwood, 1964; Hamrin, Jons...

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a systemic granulomatous vasculitis of unknown aetiology, which typically affects the branches of carotid artery (especially the temporal artery), but it can involve any medium-size or large artery, and then its diagnostics becomes much more difficult. The aim of our study is to point up typical histopathological changes in the aorta of GCA patients. In the study w...

The ability to block specific cytokine pathways has revealed pathophysiological differences among autoimmune diseases (e.g., the efficacy of TNF inhibitors in arthritides and inflammatory bowel disorders their inefficacy giant-cell arteritis multiple sclerosis), providing a framework for reclassification.

Giant cell arteritis often affects extra-cranial vessels and may not present as a classical cranial arteritis. It must be considered in patients over 50 with constitutional symptoms and raised inflammatory markers. Initial investigations are usually non-specific, but positron emission tomography–computed tomography is normally diagnostic. Prompt treatment with corticosteroids is required for th...

Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is considered to be a benign disease by some, while others think it is a more serious illness which required similar treatment to giant cell arteritis (GCA). The progress of 85 patients with PMR who presented to a district general hospital has been studied in an attempt to study this relationship. Thirty-eight patients had PMR alone, and 14 developed PMR and GCA wit...