BACKGROUND Giant cell arteritis typically involves the temporal arteries, but can involve other cranial arteries. Temporal artery biopsy is the mainstay for the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis; however, biopsy may be problematic if giant cell arteritis involves other cranial arteries that are inaccessible for sampling. In these situations, magnetic resonance angiography is a useful, non-invas...

Ophthalmic involvement in giant cell arteritis can manifest in a number of ways. Central retinal artery occlusion is one of the common causes of visual loss in giant cell arteritis. On the contrary, branch retinal vein occlusion is rarely associated with the latter. We report an 89-year-old lady with acute left central retinal artery occlusion on a background of progressive decline in vision ov...

Takayasu’s areritis is a chronic inflammatory oblitarative arteritis of unknown aetiology. Anaesthesia in these patients is complicated by uncontrolled hypertension, hypoperfusion of organs and difficulty in BP monitoring due to stenosis and aneurismal dilatation of arteries. This case report is about successful management of a 27 yrs old primigragida with known case of Takayasu’s arteritis, Se...

Takayasu arteritis is an uncommon disease with a variety of presentations. We report a case of Takayasu arteritis with a presentation of a pulmonary-renal syndrome in a 22-year-old woman. She presented in acute respiratory failure with hemoptysis and acute renal failure; interestingly, however, the renal biopsy was normal. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) showed significant narrowing in the...

OBJECTIVE To assess the feasibility and potential diagnostic usefulness of arterial ultrasonography in Takayasu's arteritis. METHODS The total wall, intimal + medial, and adventitial thickness of the common carotid, subclavian and common femoral arteries, and of the abdominal aorta, were examined by B mode ultrasonography in 16 patients with Takayasu's arteritis and 16 healthy control subject...

OBJECTIVES: The authors described a case of Riedel’s thyroiditis, a relatively rare disease affecting the thyroid gland. RESULTS: A 38-year-old female was diagnosed with Riedel’s thyroiditis by a frozen section examination during attempted surgery for the suspicion of malignancy. The histopathologic examination confi rmed the diagnosis of Riedel’s thyroiditis combined with signs of giant cell a...

Giant cell arteritis (GCA), temporal arteritis or Horton’s arteritis, is a systemic vasculitis which involves large and medium sized vessels, especially the extracranial branches of the carotid arteries, in persons usually older than 50 years. Permanent visual loss, ischaemic strokes, and thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysms are feared complications of GCA. The treatment consists of high dos...

Giant cell arteritis is often referred to in the context of polymyalgia rheumatica with temporal artery involvement. There are, however, more malignant forms of presentation of this necrotizing arteritis involving either the great vessels of the aorta or, occasionally, the pulmonary arteries. Our case relates to giant cell arteritis presenting as pulmonary artery obstruction in a patient withou...

Giant cell arteritis may lead to catastrophic, large-vessel complications from chronic vascular wall inflammation without prompt diagnosis and treatment. We describe a rare case of acute aortic dissection without preceding aneurysm secondary to histologically confirmed giant cell arteritis (GCA) in an 85-year-old female with a four-year history of polymyalgia rheumatica and temporal arteritis d...