skip to content
Dovepress - Open Access to Scientific and Medical Research
View our mobile site

8847

Doppler ultrasound and giant cell arteritis

Commentary

(1758) Views  (521) Full article downloads

Authors: Ana Marina Suelves, Enrique España-Gregori, Jose Tembl, et al

Published Date November 2010 Volume 2010:4 Pages 1383 - 1384
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/OPTH.S13006

Ana Marina Suelves1, Enrique España-Gregori1,2, Jose Tembl3, Stephanie Rohrweck1, Jose Maria Millán4, Manuel Díaz-Llopis1,4,5
1Service of Ophthalmology, La Fe University Hospital, Valencia, Spain; 2Department of Optics, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; 3Service of Neurology, La Fe University Hospital, Valencia, Spain; 4CIBERER, Ciber de Enfermedades Raras, Valencia, Spain; 5Faculty of Medicine, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

Objective: To evaluate the utility of ultrasound in aiding the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis (GCA), in monitoring the response to corticotherapy, and in detecting early relapses.
Methods: A pilot study, prospective, included 10 patients with suspected GCA. All patients underwent ultrasound examination of both temporal arteries before temporal artery biopsy (TAB), 3 weeks after starting treatment, and 3 months after diagnosis. For this study, the histological findings alone were used to define if patients were suffering from GCA. The findings on ultrasound were compared with the results of biopsy. The best place to perform TAB was observed by ultrasound.
Results: All patients with positive biopsy were detected with ultrasound. No false positives were observed on ultrasound. The results presented give a sensibility, specificity, and positive predictive value of 100% for the use of ultrasound in the diagnosis of GCA. Two relapses were detected early by ultrasound during the follow-up.
Conclusions: This pilot study suggests that eco-doppler may be a useful tool in diagnosis and clinic follow-up in patients with suspected GCA.

Keywords: giant cell arteritis, ultrasound, temporal artery biopsy, optic nerve




 

Other articles by Dr Ana M. Suelves



Readers of this article also read:

Antihypertensive effects of astaxanthin
Impact of dyslipidemia on cardiovascular risk stratification of hypertensive patients and association of lipid profile with other cardiovascular risk factors: results from the ICEBERG study
Cuff inflation during ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and heart rate
Role of aliskiren in cardio-renal protection and use in hypertensives with multiple risk factors
Refinement of rigid-body protein–protein docking using backbone and side-chain minimization with a coarse-grained model
Concurrent central retinal artery occlusion and branch retinal vein occlusion in giant cell arteritis
Fulminant bilateral Haemophilus influenzae keratitis in a patient with hypovitaminosis A treated with contaminated autologous serum
Intravitreal ranibizumab for symptomatic drusenoid pigment epithelial detachment without choroidal neovascularization in age-related macular degeneration
Cumulative clinical experience from over a decade of use of levofloxacin in community-acquired pneumonia: critical appraisal and role in therapy
Long-term results of oral valganciclovir for treatment of anterior segment inflammation secondary to cytomegalovirus infection