Tan et al recently described a case of ''resistant giant cell arteritis'' successfully treated with etanercept. 1 Their patient, who had classical symptoms of polymyalgia rheu-matica (PMR), developed headaches while receiving low dose steroids. Biopsy of a temporal artery showed no arteritis. Because giant cell arteritis (GCA) was suspected on clinical grounds, high dose steroids were institute...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the involvement of arteries other than the temporal arteries in active giant cell arteritis using color Doppler sonography. METHODS The occipital, facial, vertebral, carotid, subclavian, axillary, brachial, ulnar radial, femoral, popliteal, posterior tibial, and dorsal pedal arteries, and the abdominal aorta of 33 consecutive patients with acute giant cell arteritis a...

AIMS To analyse the cost-effectiveness of three strategies for examining temporal artery biopsies based on data from cases examined over the past 10 years. METHODS Of a total of 172 temporal artery biopsies, five were unsuitable for further analysis, 47 had already had levels cut, and 120 had levels cut as part of the study. All the biopsies were examined blind before and after levels. A tree...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the utility of ultrasound in aiding the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis (GCA), in monitoring the response to corticotherapy, and in detecting early relapses. METHODS A pilot study, prospective, included 10 patients with suspected GCA. All patients underwent ultrasound examination of both temporal arteries before temporal artery biopsy (TAB), 3 weeks after starting trea...

Giant cell arteritis is rarely reported in people aged less than 50 years. We report a case of giant cell arteritis in a woman who developed symptoms of dizziness, headache, bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment, and had 1 episode of transient left hemiparesis before the age of 30. Carotid angiography showed multiple segmental narrowing in cranial vessels. Subsequently, at the age of 31, s...

BACKGROUND To examine the relationship between human papillomavirus (HPV) and giant cell arteritis (GCA) of the temporal artery. METHODS The study group consisted of 22 cases of histologically positive/biopsy confirmed GCA. The control groups consisted of 21 histologically negative temporal artery biopsies and fifteen cases of vascular margins of nephrectomies. For detection of the presence o...