Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Jul;69(7):1356-9.
doi: 10.1136/ard.2009.122135. Epub 2010 May 24.

Vascular involvement in patients with giant cell arteritis determined by duplex sonography of 2x11 arterial regions

Markus Aschwanden  1 , Friederike Kesten, Martin Stern, Christoph Thalhammer, Ulrich A Walker, Alan Tyndall, Kurt A Jaeger, Christoph Hess, Thomas Daikeler
Affiliations
Free article

Vascular involvement in patients with giant cell arteritis determined by duplex sonography of 2x11 arterial regions

Markus Aschwanden et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2010 Jul.
Free article

Abstract

Objective: To define the specificity and extent of duplex sonography (DS) findings suggestive of vessel wall inflammation in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA).

Methods: Patients admitted between December 2006 and April 2009 to the University Hospital Basel with a suspicion of GCA were eligible for the study. DS of 2x11 arterial regions was performed in all study participants, and American College of Rheumatology criteria were applied to classify patients into GCA or non-GCA groups.

Results: GCA was diagnosed in 38 of the 72 participants (53%). A DS pattern suggestive of vessel wall inflammation was not observed in any of the patients in the non-GCA group but, in 21 of the 38 patients with GCA (55%), DS signs suggestive of vessel wall inflammation of > or =1 vessel region were detected. In 12 of the 38 patients with GCA (32%), DS signs of large vessel vasculitis (LVV) were found in > or =1 vessel region(s) of both upper and lower limb vessels. Follow-up DS was performed 6 months after the baseline examination in 9 of the 12 patients with LVV and showed the persistence of most findings despite normalised signs of systemic inflammation.

Conclusion: DS detects changes in the vessel wall that appear to be specific for GCA; they can be present in upper and lower limb arteries of patients with GCA. Surprisingly, DS-detectable LVV and signs of systemic inflammation are largely dissociated.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types