Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) is an auto inflammatory response often found in the superficial temporal artery.Patients may present with a localized headache overlying the temporal artery, as well as other symptoms such as weight loss, jaw claudication, shoulder stiffness and vision loss.Visual impairment from giant cell arteritis, associated with ischemic damage to the optic nerve or central retinal artery, may be irreversible.The diagnosis of giant cell arteritis may be confirmed by the presence of multinucleated giant cells in a temporal artery biopsy.We present two case reports of patients with suspected GCA where diagnosis and management were complicated by delayed/negative temporal biopsies.We suggest a practical algorithm for the management of patients with suspected GCA.
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Swerhun et al. (2021) studied this question.