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

Destruction (elastolysis) of the internal elastic lamina is frequently observed near early atherosclerotic plaques. Elastolysis and plaque formation are also found together in the temporal arteritis/polymyalgia rheumatica syndrome. Could it be that atherosclerosis and the syndrome are more closely akin than usually thought, with elastolysis acting as the pathogenetic link between them? A kinship of this nature is in accord with the growing recognition that elastin-related autoimmunity prevails in both these forms of vascular disease. A case can also be made out for the belief that the autoimmune reactions in internal vessels may be provoked by events in the integument where a slow but ultimately massive turnover of dermal and vascular elastic tissue takes place under the harmful influence of solar and other forms of actinic radiation.
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PMID:Destruction of elastic tissue (elastolysis) as a link between atherosclerosis and the temporal arteritis/polymyalgia rheumatica syndrome. Observations on an actinic factor in vascular disease. 636 8

This study of cutaneous elastic tissue and serum fluorescence supports the hypothesis that widespread destruction and resorption of elastic tissue (elastolysis) occurs in the temporal arteritis/polymyalgia rheumatica syndrome. A systemic elastolysis of this nature may be provoked by actinic (radiant) damage to the "exposed" elastic tissues in the skin and superficial arteries, the archetype of such injury being seen in temporal arteritis. Scattered giant cells are the usual agents of elastolysis but tuberculoid ("sarcoid") infiltrates often take over in the later stages. In acute polymyalgia, the phenomenon probably becomes diffuse and humoral. Elastolysis may be a direct pathogenetic link between polymyalgia and other vascular diseases such as idiopathic aneurysm and atherosclerosis.
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PMID:The role of actinically provoked systemic elastolysis in polymyalgic vascular disease. A study based on serum fluorescence and haptoglobin. 732 40