Published in

Springer (part of Springer Nature), Journal of General Internal Medicine, 4(24), p. 532-536

DOI: 10.1007/s11606-009-0925-9

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Delayed Diagnosis of Biopsy-Negative Giant Cell Arteritis Presenting as Fever of Unknown Origin

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Fever of unknown origin (FUO) presents a diagnostic challenge. Giant cell arteritis (GCA) may present with FUO and this entity should be included in the differential of elderly patients who present with constitutional symptoms. While a temporal artery biopsy is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of GCA, a subset of patients with large vessel involvement by GCA may have a negative temporal artery biopsy and no cranial symptoms. We present a 79 year-old woman with FUO and negative temporal artery biopsies in whom diagnosis of GCA was delayed. Further imaging with CT-angiogram and positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan showed diffuse extensive active vasculitis. The above case underscores the value of imaging studies in the evaluation of patients with FUO from occult large vessel vasculitis.