OBJECTIVE To characterize the microbiome of the temporal artery in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA), and to apply an unbiased and comprehensive shotgun sequencing-based approach to determine whether there is an enrichment of candidate pathogens in the affected tissue. METHODS Temporal artery biopsy specimens were collected from patients at a single institution over a period of 4 years...

OBJECTIVE Mast cells (MCs) are known to be involved in the neovascularization and regulation of T cell responses. However, the presence of MCs in giant cell arteritis (GCA) is unknown. This prompted us to study the presence and phenotype of MCs in GCA. METHODS Human GCA specimens collected for diagnostic purposes were examined with immunohistochemistry. Double immunostainings of MC tryptase w...

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common of the vasculitis syndromes and, being a disease of the elderly, its incidence is increasing with the general ageing of the population. GCA is most feared for its early complications, namely blindness and stroke, resulting from inflammation and subsequent occlusion of ocular and extra cranial arteries, respectively. More recently, however, GCA has b...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and cerebrovascular events in a community-based incidence cohort of patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) compared to the general population. METHODS A population-based inception cohort of patients with incident GCA between January 1, 1950 and December 31, 2009 in Olmsted County, Minnesota and a cohort of non-GCA subjec...

OBJECTIVE To report two patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) who developed rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to review the literature in terms of coexistence of RA, GCA, and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). METHODS We conducted a comprehensive review of the English literature from 1980 to 2015 to analyze data on the coexistence of GCA and RA. The PubMed, Web of Science, Proquest, and Ovid databa...

BACKGROUND Giant cell arteritis (GCA), if untreated, can lead to blindness and stroke. The study's objectives were to (1) determine a new evidence-based benchmark of the extent of diagnostic delay for GCA and (2) examine the role of GCA-specific characteristics on diagnostic delay. METHODS Medical literature databases were searched from inception to November 2015. Articles were included if re...

The use of 18F-fluoro-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography scan (FDG-PET) and computed tomography angiography (CTA) to improve accuracy of diagnosis of giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a very important clinical need. We aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of FDG-PET and CTA in patients with GCA.FDG-PET and CTA were acquired in all consecutive patients suspected for GCA. Results of FDG...

OBJECTIVE In Europe giant cell arteritis (GCA) is more common in Scandinavian countries than in southern regions. Epidemiological studies on GCA in other more distant countries have indicated a progressive increase in incidence. A regular cyclical pattern in incidence of GCA over 20 years has been reported in Olmsted County (Minnesota, USA). In contrast, no cyclical fluctuation has been recentl...

BACKGROUND Ultrasonography of temporal arteries is not commonly used in the approach of patients with suspected giant cell arteritis (GCA) in clinical practice. A meta-analysis of primary studies available through April 2004 concluded that ultrasonography could indeed be helpful in diagnosing GCA. We specifically re-examined the diagnostic value of the ultrasonography-derived halo sign, a dark ...

Hanan Selman Hessan and Ahmed Mohammed Abbas 563 Abstract Immune status was examined after tonsillectomy operations in 30 children with recurrent acute tonsillitis, their ages ranged between 3-10 years, were clinically diagnosed by ENT surgeon at AlHilla General Teaching Hospital and 10 apparently healthy children were included as a control in the study which lasted from February to May 2011 .I...