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)

A 62-year-old man presented with a 3-month history of chronic non-productive cough and unexplained fever. Further questioning revealed that he had headaches and myalgia. Bilateral thickened temporal arteries were noted on physical examination. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate was 96 mm in 1 h. A biopsy specimen of the left temporal artery showed inflammatory changes consistent with the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis. Commencement of prednisolone resulted in rapid and dramatic resolution of his symptoms. Physicians should be aware of respiratory symptoms in patients with giant cell arteritis in order to avoid delay in diagnosis and therapy of this condition.
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PMID:Giant cell arteritis presenting as chronic cough and prolonged fever. 1048 79

Temporal arteritis is a chronic vasculitis of medium and large-size vessels and involves particularly extracranial branches of the aortic arch arteries. Authors report the case of a 73-year-old woman who presented to the hospital after looking for medical counselling three times because of unexplained fever, fatigue, nonproductive cough, and throat pain. She already completed two antibiotic prescriptions. This 3-week history completed in the last days with temporal bilateral headache and visual disturbance. Physical examination was notable for fever and bilateral thickened tender temporal arteries. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate was elevated. A biopsy specimen of the left temporal artery confirmed the diagnosis of giant cell temporal arteritis. The diagnostic suspicion of this disease is clinical and usually simple, but in 10% there are throat pain, non-productive cough and fever which are misunderstood as superior respiratory tract infections leading to diagnosis and treatment delay.
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PMID:[Temporal arteritis: a confounding diagnosis]. 2201 10

Physicians need to be familiar with the typical manifestations of giant cell arteritis. However, the challenge lies in recognizing atypical cases that lack the more specific manifestations or reflect vasculitis in less frequently involved territories. Among atypical clinical manifestations, dry cough has been reported in recent years. The literature contains sporadic reports mainly single case report. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of dry cough in patients with giant cell arteritis. Clinical data were collected from 88 patients with giant cell arteritis. Relationships between dry cough and other clinical manifestations or biological data were analyzed. Dry cough of recent appearance was found at initial presentation of giant cell arteritis in 12 patients (13.6%). In 2 cases, dry cough was isolated. The 2 patients sought attention because of chronic dry cough associated with inflammation of unknown origin. In 10 cases, dry cough was associated with typical clinical manifestations of giant cell arteritis. A correlation was found between inflammatory biomarkers and presence of dry cough. The mean CRP was 153.8 mg/l (SD 85.1) in patients with dry cough and 94 mg/l (SD 72.2) in patients without dry cough (p = 0.0131). We conclude that the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis should always be considered in an elderly patient with an unexplained elevation of inflammatory markers and chronic dry cough. Dry cough in giant cell arteritis was not correlated with other clinical manifestations of this vasculitis, including pulmonary manifestations, but was correlated with inflammatory biomarkers.
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PMID:Dry cough is a frequent manifestation of giant cell arteritis. 2759 36