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Question: How do you diagnose and treat giant cell arteritis?
Answer: Temporal arteritis patients present with scalp tenderness, malaise, polymyagia (muscle aching) … and in the eye clinic, decreased vision in one eye. If you have any suspicion for GCA, you need to draw an ESR and C-reactive protein serum level and start empiric oral steroids immediately. If the patient truly has temporal arteritis, the immediate risk for the other eye is very high.
More definite diagnosis is made with a biopsy of the temporal artery. This can be done at a later date, and some people believe that steroids won’t effect your path specimen for two weeks, so go ahead and start those steroids.
Comments and Feedback
1 Comment
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That is a refreshing comment, because one is always wandering whether or not starting steroids would mask the results, so you can avoid an eventual blindness. Besides I`ve never repented myself from using them, rahter I did sadly whenever I didn´t. I just enjoy a lot your comment.
Comment by Joaquin Garcia Frometa, MD — November 7, 2009 @ 5:48 pm
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