Concordance of bilateral temporal artery biopsy in giant cell arteritis

Objective: To determine whether the diagnostic sensitivity of bilateral tem poral artery biopsy is superior to that of unilateral biopsy in cases of su spected temporal arteritis. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis of the results of 60 bilate ral temporal artery biopsies examined in an ophthalmic pathology laboratory . Results: The histopathologic diagnosis in 13% of the biopsy pairs was disco rdant. There was a 5% chance of obtaining a positive biopsy result on the s ide opposite an initially negative biopsy result. Conclusions: Bilateral temporal artery biopsy is 5% more likely than unilat eral biopsy to detect the characteristic histopathologic findings in patien ts with temporal arteritis.