OBJECTIVE As one of the diagnostic criteria for giant cell arteritis affecting the temporal arteries (temporal arteritis) is still biopsy-proven vasculitis of the affected artery, the aim of our study was to evaluate the value of a non-invasive procedure, 2-(18)F-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (F-18-FDG-PET), in the diagnosis of Horton's disease. METHODS During a ...

Takayasu arteritis is a large-vessel vasculitis that often results in pulselessness due to fibrotic stenoses. Whereas minor calcification is sometimes seen with Takayasu arteritis, it rarely causes stenosis. Extensive calcification resulting in malperfusion is exceedingly rare and has been attributed to disorders in calcium trafficking in a chronic inflammatory state. We report an unusual case ...

Giant cell arteritis (temporal arteritis) is a chronic vasculitis that usually affects older people. Although this is a systemic disease, it most often affects the cranial arteries. The most frequent complication of this disorder is visual loss. We report the case of a patient who suffered several rare complications, including tongue necrosis, as a result of being diagnosed with giant cell arte...

In the investigation of six patients with giant cell arteritis and abnormal liver function radionuclide liver scans were found to be abnormal in all. The abnormality may be due to arteritis of hepatic vessels. It is important to recognise that giant cell arteritis may cause liver scan abnormalities. If other pathology is suspected and corticosteroid treatment delayed while further investigation...

Temporal arteritis is most common vasculitis in elderly and imitated by miscellaneous disorders. Temporal artery biopsy is the gold standard test in the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis (GCA). Hereby, we describe a case of a 67-year-old man who presented initially with temporal arteritis; however, a lip biopsy then revealed AL amyloidosis. In this respect, temporal artery biopsy should be perf...

N Engl J Med 2003;349:160-9. Copyright © 2003 Massachusetts Medical Society. nflammation of large arteries such as the aorta and its major branches occurs in a number of disorders, including Kawasaki’s syndrome, Behçet’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, syphilis, and tuberculosis. However, aortitis and large-vessel arteritis are characteristics of two entities — giant-cell (temporal) arteritis a...

Takayasu arteritis is a chronic vasculitis of unknown origin. Its incidence is low in the United States and Europe (1 to 3 new cases per year per million population) (9,17,28). Sporadically, association between Takayasu arteritis and inflammatory bowel disease has been described, both in Crohn’s disease (5-7, 13, 15,17,19,23,29,31,32,38,40,41,43,50,52,54) and ulcerative colitis (1,3,4,8,14,22,2...

Patients with Takayasu arteritis often present with reduced vision related either to the disease per se or due to complications of therapy. We report a patient with Takayasu arteritis who developed acute onset bilateral visual loss 6wks following percutaneous revascularization of occluded aortic arch branches. No ocular cause for the visual loss was evident. The reason for visual loss in this p...

Takayasu’s arteritis is an idiopathic, inflammatory disease which involves largeand medium-sized arteries, specially the aorta, its major branches and the pulmonary arteries. In contrast to other vasculitides, Takayasu’s arteritis is restricted to certain geographical areas. Initially thought to be confined to Japan and Korea, it has now been reported with increased frequency in Mexico, India, ...

INTRODUCTION Takayasu arteritis is a relatively rare type of large-vessel arteritis that primarily affects the aorta and its major branches, the coronary arteries, and the pulmonary arteries. Depending on the different groups of blood vessels involved in the disease process, the clinical presentation of Takayasu arteritis varies. Here we report a case of a woman presenting with a debilitating m...