Use of high resolution color Doppler sonography in the diagnosis of arteritis temporalis.

Purpose: To define sonographic signs of arteritis temporalis using color co ded duplex sonography. Methods: 20 patients with clinically suspected tempo ral arteritis were examined with color coded Doppler ultrasound prior to te mporalis biopsy. The investigation included the temporal artery on both sid es and documentation was performed with color prints of the longitudinal or ientation of both temporal arteries. All patients had an unilateral biopsy of the temporal artery. Results: 6/20 patients had histologically confirmed temporal arteritis. All patients showed a paravasal zone of lower echogeni city (halo-sign) along the temporal artery. 12/14 patients without temporal arteritis showed no halo-sign. However, a halo-sign was found in 2/14 pati ents without temporal arteritis which could not be distinguished from the h ate-sign observed in patients with temporal arteritis. Conclusions: A halo- sign could be detected in the majority of patients with arteritis temporali s in concordance with the recent published findings of Schmidt et al. Howev er, a definite specificity of this halo-sign must be rejected.