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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Med.
Sec. Rheumatology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1453462
This article is part of the Research Topic Updates on Giant Cell Arteritis: Pathogenesis, Diagnosis and Treatment- Volume II View all 10 articles

Arteritis: Clinical Perspectives and Histological Patterns

Provisionally accepted
Pavlos Stamatis Pavlos Stamatis 1,2*Carl Turesson Carl Turesson 3Aladdin Mohammad Aladdin Mohammad 1,4
  • 1 Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Skane County, Sweden
  • 2 Rheumatology, Sunderby Hospital, LuleÃ¥, Norrbotten, Sweden
  • 3 Department of Clinical Sciences Malmö, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden
  • 4 Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Although its role has been debated, temporal artery biopsy (TAB) remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of cranial giant cell arteritis (GCA). The specificity of TAB is excellent and the sensitivity, albeit lower, is comparable with other diagnostic modalities used for the diagnosis of GCA. This outpatient procedure has a low rate of complications and is well integrated in the majority of healthcare systems. The length of the specimen, the number of the examined sections and the prolonged use of glucocorticoids before the biopsy may affect the outcome of the TAB as diagnostic tool. The typical histological findings in GCA are often characterized by granulomatous inflammation with infiltration of mononuclear cells with or without the presence of giant cell, varying degrees of external and internal elastic lamina damage and intimal thickening. Overlooking signs of inflammation in the adventitia and in connective tissue surrounding the temporal artery may lead to false negative results. The distinction between healed arteritis and age-related atherosclerosis may be challenging.

    Keywords: Giant cell (temporal) arteritis, Temporal artery biopsy, Histology, Specimen length, Arteritis, adventitial inflammation, Transmural inflammation, Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR)

    Received: 23 Jun 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Stamatis, Turesson and Mohammad. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pavlos Stamatis, Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, 221 84, Skane County, Sweden

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.