THE USE OF ULTRASOUND BIOMICROSCOPY IN TH E DIAGNOSIS OF GIANT-CELL ARTERITIS (PRELIMINARY-REPORT)

Background A biopsy of the temporal arteries is still the appropriate method to prove the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis. We evaluated th e potential use of high-resolution ultrasound-biomicroscopy in the dia gnosis of giant cell arteritis. Patients and Methods In a prospective study we examined 16 patients (8 women and 8 men) with a mean age of 7 1 years with the clinical suspicion of a giant cell arteritis. Additio nally to the clinical examination the temporal arteries were imaged in all patients using the ultrasound-biomicroscopy (Zeiss-Humphrey Instr uments). The results were correlated to the histopathologic changes of the temporal arteries excised bilaterally at the same location. Resul ts Histopathological evaluation revealed a granulomatous arteritis in 4 out of 16 examined patients. The temporal arteries of these patients also showed characteristic changes using ultrasound biomicroscopy lik e middle-reflective shadowing of the arterial lumen and a condensation and enlargement of the muscularis media. Ultrasound-biomicroscopy all owed a precise evaluation of the temporal arteries due to a high-resol ution sonographic image. The morphological differentiation between a n ormal and an affected artery was possible. A positive correlation betw een histopathological and clinical findings was seen in all patients. Conclusion In this preliminary study the ultrasound-biomicroscopy seem ed to be an appropriate non-invasive tool for the morphological imagin g and evaluation of temporal arteries.