Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0039483 (giant cell arteritis)
 3,204 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We report the case of a 60-year-old man who presented with fever, weight loss, generalized aching, left temporal and ear pain, and an erythrocyte sedimentation rate of 125 mm/hour. Due to the presumed diagnosis of giant cell arteritis (GCA), the patient was treated with prednisone (60 mg daily), with immediate improvement in his symptoms. Biopsy of the temporal arteries revealed no significant inflammatory infiltrate. Further evaluation included assessments of thyroid function, which revealed an elevated T4 level, low thyroid-stimulating hormone level, and suppressed radioactive iodine uptake on thyroid scintigraphy. A diagnosis of subacute thyroiditis was made, prednisone therapy was tapered over 3 weeks, and treatment with beta blockers was instituted. The patient remained asymptomatic and returned to a euthyroid state. This case illustrates that subacute thyroiditis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of GCA.
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PMID:Occult subacute thyroiditis mimicking classic giant cell arteritis. 798 Jun 73

Fever of unknown origin (FUO) refers to prolonged fevers of > or = 101 degrees F and that persists for > 3 weeks that remain undiagnosed after an intensive in-hospital/outpatient workup. The most common FUO categories of are infectious, neoplastic, rheumatic/inflammatory, and miscellaneous causes. Malignancies have supplanted infectious diseases as the most common cause of FUOs in the adult population. Rheumatic/inflammatory causes of FUO are relatively less common than previously because of the introduction over the years of sophisticated diagnostic tests for most rheumatic diseases. The rheumatic/inflammatory disorders that remain important causes of FUO today are those that cannot be readily diagnosed by readily available/noninvasive tests, for example, adult Still's disease and temporal arteritis (TA). In older patients with FUO, TA can be a difficult diagnosis when the characteristic findings (ie, scalp tenderness, jaw claudication) are not present. Patients with TA presenting as FUO often have only headaches that may be accompanied by bilateral jaw discomfort. Endocrine causes of FUOs are rare. The most common endocrine disorder rarely presenting as an FUO is de Quervain's subacute thyroiditis. As in TA, subacute thyroiditis may present with headache and pain at the angle of the jaw. Both TA and subacute thyroiditis may be accompanied by fatigue, weight loss, and night sweats. We present a case of 55-year-old woman who presented with an FUO with clinical and laboratory findings suggesting TA. However, the absence of thrombocytosis and a normal alkaline phosphatase argued against the diagnosis of TA. Also against the diagnosis of TA was weight loss without loss of appetite and a slightly increased pulse. After nonspecific laboratory test results suggested that TA was not the cause of her FUO, additional tests were ordered. Thyroid function test results suggested the possibility of de Quervain's subacute thyroiditis as the cause of her FUO. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of de Quervain's subacute thyroiditis presenting as an FUO with elevated ferritin levels.
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PMID:Fever of unknown origin (FUO): de Quervain's subacute thyroiditis with highly elevated ferritin levels mimicking temporal arteritis (TA). 2010 88

Subacute thyroiditis (SAT) and giant cell arteritis (GCA) are rare diseases. Occurrence of both of these diseases is incidental or one disease presenting with symptoms of other disease is very rare. Our patient presented with symptoms of giant cell arteritis and was diagnosed with subacute thyroiditis.
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PMID:Subacute thyroiditis masquerading giant cell arteritis. 2517 57