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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 purposes of this article are to report a case with temporal arteritis (TA) and to summarize and reanalyze the cases of temporal arteritis associated with fever in published articles for understanding better the clinical features of TA. A case with biopsy-proven TA is reported. The publications with TA and fever were searched by using MEDLINE in English from 1966 to 1999. Three hundred sixty cases of temporal arteritis associated with fever were reanalyzed. The results showed that a case of biopsy-proven TA with typically clinical manifestation was initially misdiagnosed and that the reanalysis of 360 cases revealed that the common clinical findings at presentation were abnormal temporal arteries, headache, low fever, loss of weight, polymyalgia rheumatica, jaw claudication, vision disorder, arthralgis or myalyias, and ear pain and that the uncommon clinical findings at presentation were high fever, malaise, anorexia, breast pain, transient ischemic attack/stroke, cough, mental disorder, diarrhea, and uterine prolapse, etc. Laboratory findings were the range of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) 14 to 149 with a mean of 97.0 mm/hr, white blood cells being normal or increased in the range of 10.9 to 22.9 x 10(9)/L, hemoglobin level 7 to 16 g/dL, the platelets count increased to 785 x 10(9)/L, and microscopic hematuria. The diagnosis was made by a combination of clinical features, an increased ESR, a response to steroids, and, most specifically, temporal artery biopsy. The initial diagnosis was misdiagnosed in 38.2% of patients. In conclusion, the features of TA associated with fever have not been widely appreciated yet. TA is a common cause of fever of unknown origin (FUO) in the elderly. TA should be considered when patients complain of common and uncommon manifestations. An elevated ESR will aid in the diagnosis of TA, and temporal artery biopsy will provide certainty.
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PMID:Temporal arteritis and fever: report of a case and a clinical reanalysis of 360 cases. 1110 64

Giant cell arteritis is the most common form of vasculitis affecting older people, and the diagnosis should be considered in older patients who present with the new onset of headache, visual dysfunction, polymyalgia rheumatica, or systemic inflammatory symptoms. Physicians should be familiar with its variety of clinical presentations and the abnormal laboratory findings associated with it.
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PMID:Giant cell arteritis: suspect it, treat it promptly. 2187 Mar 62

Temporal arteritis is a form of vasculitis that involves the large- and medium-diameter arteries and leads to progressive headache. Symptoms may be accompanied by vision disorder, subfebrile temperature, fatigue, lack of appetite, weight loss, sweating, and joint pains. While cortisone therapy reduces the symptoms, its effects in terms of improving quality of life are limited. We opted to benefit from the effects of acupuncture to reduce symptoms and increase quality of life in a case of temporal arteritis, a chronic disease. A 75-year-old woman presented with pain on both sides of the head. The pain occurred in the form of agonizing attacks 2-3 times a week. Accompanying neck pain was present, together with continuous lethargy and fatigue. Physical examination revealed decreased cutaneous elasticity and muscle mass, and a depressive mood state was present. The patient was first administered six sessions of acupuncture therapy directed toward the migraine etiology. When no response was achieved, we investigated temporal and parietal region points associated with headache in the literature. Points GB1,8,18, ST8, SI19, and BL8 were added to the treatment. The pain attacks and their frequency decreased following acupuncture therapy. In conclusion, while cortisone is the first preference in the treatment of temporal arteritis, we think that acupuncture aimed at the cause of accompanying symptoms can also be useful.
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PMID:The Acupuncture Therapeutic Approach in Temporal Arteritis Vasculitis: A Case Report. 2943 72