CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGIC ASPECTS OF TEM PORAL ARTERITIS ACCORDING TO RECRUITMENT FROM OPHTHALMOLOGY OR INTERNAL-MEDICINE WARDS

We conducted a retrospective study of 29 consecutive cases of temporal arteritis, all with definite histological diagnostic criteria. The ep idemiological aspects of the main clinical and biological features wer e compared according to their mode of recruitment, the patients being hospitalized either in an ophthalmological unit (n = 15), or in an Int ernal Medicine unit (n = 14). The level of fever and of sedimentation rate were significantly less in the ophthalmological group (respective ly p < 0.001 and p < 0.02), a third of which is represented by the pur ely ophthalmological manifestation called ''occult temporal arteritis' '. Among the ophthalmological manifestations, despite the fact that th e recruitment bias prevented any strict epidemiological comparison, we were surprised to find no significant difference between the two grou ps concerning the frequency of transient ophthalmological manifestatio ns, which confirmed in half the patients their reputation of forerunne rs of irreversible lesions. Thus, the presentation of temporal arterit is differs according to its ophthalmological or Internal Medecine recr uitment. We were unable to determine a precise chronology difference i n the principal manifestations between these two groups. The severity of the ocular manifestations justifies looking for temporal arteritis in all c cases of transient ophthalmological manifestations, even if c linically totally isolated.