Giant cell arteritis: Involvement of intracranial arteries

Abstract

To determine the occurrence and frequency of central nervous system (CNS) vasculitis in GCA, we reviewed the medical records of all patients with a diagnosis of CNS vasculitis or angiitis at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) over a 17-year period and identified those with both biopsy-proven GCA and pathologic and/or angiographic evidence of intracranial vasculitis

3T MRI Reveals Extra- and Intracranial Involvement in Giant Cell Arteritis

“…18,19,23,29 Nevertheless, most of these patients did not undergo an MR imaging examination including sequences adapted for evaluation of intracranial VWE. 6,11 Moreover, postmortem examination can only be performed in patients with GCA with lethal complications (eg, cerebrovascular ischemic events) but not systematically. In addition, postmortem analysis in patients with GCA cannot guarantee an acute state of inflammation of the analyzed tissue.…”

“…Still, at least intradural involvement of the vertebral arteries was reported in single postmortem cases. 5,6 Another postmortem study reported 1 of 4 patients with GCA with generalized vasculitis in large and small cerebral vessels. 19 Accordingly, studies focused on primary or secondary vasculitis with cerebral involvement generally do not include patients with a GCA diagnosis.…”

“…5 However, a more recent article indicated that intracranial involvement in GCA does occur, presumably less frequently. 6 High-resolution MR imaging studies have been proved to reliably detect mural inflammation such as mural thickening and increased mural contrast enhancement of the superficial temporal and occipital arteries in biopsy-proved GCA. 7,8 Diagnostic criteria for detecting intracranial vasculitis are intramural contrast uptake, in most cases combined with wall thickening.…”

Giant cell (temporal) arteritis

“…[20] DHA'da kafa içi damarlar›n tutulumu nadirdir. [23][24][25] DHA'da geçici iskemik atak, bafl dönmesi, iflitme kayb› ve inme görülebilir. Bunun en s›k nedeni vertebral arterlerin tutulumu veya internal karotis arterin ekstra dural lezyonlar›d›r.…”

“…Bunun en s›k nedeni vertebral arterlerin tutulumu veya internal karotis arterin ekstra dural lezyonlar›d›r. [23,[25][26][27] DHA nadir olarak, dil a¤r›s› ve dil enfarktüsü, bo¤az a¤r›s›, uygunsuz ADH sendromu, [28,29] meme tümör benze-ri kitle, [30] mononöritis multipleks, [27] sensorinöral iflitme kayb›, [31] dizartri, [32] mezenterik iskemiye [32] neden olabilir.…”