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Query: UMLS:C0039483 (giant cell arteritis)
 3,204 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The prevalence of thyroid disease and thyroid autoantibodies was evaluated in 367 patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and/or giant cell arteritis (GCA). Thirty-seven patients had antibodies to thyroid microsomes or thyroglobulin; 18 had hypothyroidism requiring thyroxine replacement therapy. The prevalence of hypothyroidism (4.9%) was significantly greater than that found in 84 control subjects.
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PMID:Prevalence of hypothyroidism in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis. 161 Apr 48

Although the causes of giant cell arteritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, and Takayasu's arteritis are not known, the immune system participates in the pathogenesis of these disorders. Many reports indicate that cellular immunity is active in giant cell arteritis. The diagnosis of Takayasu's arteritis has been advanced by magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasonography. Neither technique has replaced angiography as the gold standard for diagnosis, but both may help monitor the response of Takayasu's arteritis to therapy. The diagnosis of giant cell arteritis with a low erythrocyte sedimentation rate is unusual but is more frequent in patients with a history of polymyalgia rheumatica or corticosteroid use. One recent retrospective study suggests that 20 mg/d of prednisolone is as effective as higher doses in treating giant cell arteritis. Other preliminary studies indicate that methotrexate may effectively spare corticosteroid use in giant cell arteritis and Takayasu's arteritis. Angioplasty for renal artery stenosis in Takayasu's arteritis initially cures 30% of patients and improves the condition in 70%; however, the long-term success rate is 50%. New studies demonstrate that patients with giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica have an increased risk of hypothyroidism.
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PMID:Immunopathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of giant cell arteritis, temporal arteritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, and Takayasu's arteritis. 809 25

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism in giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica. The prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica patients was determined retrospectively from 1976 through 1984 and prospectively from 1984 through 1991. A control group was composed of patients over 55 years of age consecutively admitted to the same hospital department for another condition. Patients were screened for thyroid dysfunction using a thyrotropin assay. Abnormal results were evaluated by T3 and T4 assays and, if needed, a TRH test. Among the 68 giant cell arteritis patients (mean age 72.6 +/- 7 years), of which 41 were included in the prospective arm of the study, 6 had hypothyroidism and 3 had hyperthyroidism. Corresponding figures were 4 and 4 among the 36 patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (mean age 71.7 +/- 8.3 years), of which 18 were evaluated prospectively. Among the 305 controls (mean age 71.6 +/- 9.4 years), 16 had hypothyroidism and 10 had hyperthyroidism. Prevalences of hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and antithyroid antibodies were not significantly different in the control and case groups. Data fail to support previous suggestions that giant cell arteritis or polymyalgia rheumatica patients may be an increased risk for hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism. They lend no indirect support to the hypothesis that giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica may be autoimmune disorders.
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PMID:[Prevalence of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism in temporal arteritis and rhizomelic pseudopolyarthritis. A controlled study of 104 cases]. 814 48

In a retrospective study of 115 patients with giant cell arteritis, 5 clinically patent autoimmune diseases were recorded; including 2 patients (1.8%) with Grave's disease and 1 with hypothyroidism. Among these patients, 46 had systematic assays of blood thyroid hormones and 39 were systematically investigated for anti-thyroid antibodies (ATAb):3 (6.5%) had biological hypothyroidism and 4 (10.3%) had ATAb. These findings were not significantly different from those of a control group of 39 age and sex matched patients.
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PMID:[Autoimmune thyroid diseases and Horton disease]. 837 35

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 confirmed the diagnosis of Riedel's thyroiditis combined with signs of giant cell arteritis. After hemithyroidectomy, the patient had paresis of the recurrent laryngeal nerve for five days and signs of hypothyroidism and hypoparathyroidism for three months after surgery. The level of thyroid peroxidase antibodies titer was higher. The patient had no compression symptoms, no signs of systemic immunopathology, and no signs of extracervical fibrosis. She was put on prednison 5 mg daily. CONCLUSIONS: Riedel's thyroiditis can be looked upon as a cervical fibrosis of unknown etiology affecting the thyroid. In our case it was combined with signs of giant cell arteritis.
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PMID:CASE REPORT: Invasive fibrous thyroiditis (Riedel's disease) with signs of giant cell arteritis. 1145 35

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) left behind the largest collection of self-portraits in the history of art. These portraits were painted over a period of 41 years, using a realistic technique. To evaluate Rembrandt's aging process we studied 25 uncontested Rembrandt oil self-portraits by means of objective and descriptive techniques. By measuring brow position changes through the years, we demonstrated that brow descent started in the second half of the third decade and began to level out in the fourth decade. Based on Rembrandts' aging physiognomy, from age 22 to 63, we believe that Rembrandt did not suffer from temporal arteritis, hypothyroidism, rosacea, or rhynophima and that no other facial signs of systemic diseases are evident, contrary to the opinions expressed by other medical professionals. We suggest that Rembrandt suffered from melancholia or mild depression, and propose the possibility of chronic lead poisoning as a theoretical illness that he might have had.
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PMID:Rembrandt--aging and sickness: a combined look by plastic surgeons, an art researcher and an internal medicine specialist. 1734 73

Chronic headache is still a frequent problem in old age, affecting about 10% of all women and 5% of all men older than 70 years. The incidence of primary headache decreases with advancing age, while that of secondary headache increases. The clinical characteristics of migraine can also change with age; for example, vegetative symptoms are less prominent, and less intense migrainous pain localized predominantly in the neck is frequently reported. Migraine aura can also be experienced more frequently in isolation, without a headache. Hypnic headache is a rare primary headache syndrome that occurs almost exclusively in the elderly. Most of the secondary headache syndromes that occur more frequently in old age present clinically as tension-type headache. Examples of rather common reasons for secondary headache syndromes in the elderly are intracranial space-occupying lesions, ophthalmological problems and autoimmune diseases such as giant cell arteritis. Elderly patients are especially likely to have a number of illnesses at any one time for which they take various medications each day, so that headaches can also quite often be caused by their medication or by withdrawal of these. As a result of such multimorbidity the homeostasis is disturbed in such patients, leading to various conditions that can entail concomitant headaches (sleep apnoea syndrome, dialysis headache, headache attributed to arterial hypertension or hypothyroidism). Familiar facial neuralgias, such as trigeminal neuralgia or postherpetic neuralgia following manifest herpes zoster affecting the face, become markedly more frequent with age. In general, in the treatment of headaches in the elderly it is essential to pay careful attention to potential interactions with the multiple drugs needed because of other diseases; in addition, the comorbidities themselves have to be taken into account, especially depression, anxiety and cognitive impairment, necessitating multimodal, interdisciplinary therapy plans.
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PMID:[Headache in the elderly]. 1822 47

Medical doctors appear in numerous Rembrandt paintings and reciprocally, physicians interested in art have used their diagnostic skills in dissecting the painter's work, especially his lifetime of self-portraits. The possible existence of skin and eye diseases, hypothyroidism and Horton's disease, and psychiatric and psychological traits has been a matter of everlasting debate, as summarised in the present paper. Most of all, the ageing process reveals itself over time in the continuity of the self-portraits. In the quest for signs of illness, the slightest bump in the canvas can be considered a symptom, and the examination of Rembrandt's self-portraits is a difficult exercise. However, the resulting published papers have given rise to a great number of diagnostic hypotheses.
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PMID:Rembrandt's doctors. 2367 98