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Br J Ophthalmol 2004;88:1595-1596
  • Letter

The use of magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of suspected giant cell arteritis

  1. S O Brannan1,
  2. D Cheung1,
  3. P I Murray1,
  4. C Dewar2,
  5. P Guest3
  1. 1Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, Dudley Road, Birmingham B18 7QU, UK
  2. 2Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, City Hospital, Birmingham, UK
  3. 3Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham, NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
  1. Correspondence to: Professor P I Murray Academic Unit of Ophthalmology, Division of Immunity and Infection, Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, City Hospital, Dudley Road, Birmingham B18 7QU, UK; P.I.Murraybham.ac.uk
  • Accepted 3 March 2003

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a vasculitis of unknown origin that has a predisposition for the cranial arteries in the elderly. It has potentially devastating visually complications and produces a broad range of symptoms and signs that mimic many other medical and surgical conditions. Blood tests reflect the underlying inflammatory process, yet the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) may be normal in 8% of patients with biopsy proved GCA.1 Nevertheless, making a definitive diagnosis has importance therapeutically as patients are committed to a lengthy oral corticosteroid regimen. Non-invasive techniques, such as colour Doppler or duplex ultrasonography, have been studied in an attempt to improve patient preselection for temporal artery biopsy (TAB).2,3 Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has …

[Full text of this article]

Responses to this article

  • MRI has great potential to assist in diagnosis of giant cell arteritis
    • Thorsten A. Bley,
    • Markus Uhl, Michael Markl, and Oliver Wieben
    Br J Ophthalmol published online September 14, 2009

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