Arteritis of the aged (giant cell arteritis) and fever of unexplained origin

Abstract

Arteritis of the aged (giant cell arteritis) masquerades as a degenerative, infectious, neoplastic or even functional disorder in the elderly. In the absence of obliterative vascular changes, the diagnosis is often overlooked when too rigid diagnostic criteria are employed. Four elderly women presented with fever of unexplained origin as the initial manifestation of this disease. The temporal arteries were conspicuously normal in all four, and other traditional clinical clues, such as visual disturbances, headache or manifestations of polymyalgia rheumatica were likewise infrequent of entirely absent. Influenza immunization and uncomplicated rectal surgery preceded the onset of illness in two. Anemia and an increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate are important diagnostic features, particularly in the face of spontaneous clinical improvement accompanied by defervescence and disappearance of nonspecific liver dysfunction. Occult intestinal perforation complicated steroid therapy in one case. Significant and sometimes hectic fever may be a common pattern for this arteritis in its earliest stages, when palpably abnormal temporal arteries, obliterative vascular changes and other traditional diagnostic clues are more likely to be absent.