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Clinical and epidemiological research
Concise report
Vascular involvement in patients with giant cell arteritis determined by duplex sonography of 2×11 arterial regions
  1. Markus Aschwanden1,
  2. Friederike Kesten2,
  3. Martin Stern3,
  4. Christoph Thalhammer1,
  5. Ulrich A Walker4,
  6. Alan Tyndall4,
  7. Kurt A Jaeger1,
  8. Christoph Hess2,
  9. Thomas Daikeler4
  1. 1Department of Angiology, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
  2. 2Medical Outpatient Department, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
  3. 3Division of Hematology, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
  4. 4Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
  1. Correspondence to Dr Thomas Daikeler, Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital Basel, Petersgraben 4, Basel CH-4031, Switzerland; tdaikeler{at}uhbs.ch

Abstract

Objective To define the specificity and extent of duplex sonography (DS) findings suggestive of vessel wall inflammation in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA).

Methods Patients admitted between December 2006 and April 2009 to the University Hospital Basel with a suspicion of GCA were eligible for the study. DS of 2×11 arterial regions was performed in all study participants, and American College of Rheumatology criteria were applied to classify patients into GCA or non-GCA groups.

Results GCA was diagnosed in 38 of the 72 participants (53%). A DS pattern suggestive of vessel wall inflammation was not observed in any of the patients in the non-GCA group but, in 21 of the 38 patients with GCA (55%), DS signs suggestive of vessel wall inflammation of ≥1 vessel region were detected. In 12 of the 38 patients with GCA (32%), DS signs of large vessel vasculitis (LVV) were found in ≥1 vessel region(s) of both upper and lower limb vessels. Follow-up DS was performed 6 months after the baseline examination in 9 of the 12 patients with LVV and showed the persistence of most findings despite normalised signs of systemic inflammation.

Conclusion DS detects changes in the vessel wall that appear to be specific for GCA; they can be present in upper and lower limb arteries of patients with GCA. Surprisingly, DS-detectable LVV and signs of systemic inflammation are largely dissociated.

https://doi.org/10.1136/ard.2009.122135

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    Footnotes

    • FK, MA, CH and TD contributed equally to this work

    • Funding TD is supported by the ‘Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft’ (FAG) of Basel and by an EULAR bursary. MS is supported by Oncosuisse (OCS-02266-08-2008). CH is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (PP00B-114850).

    • Competing interests None.

    • Ethics approval This study was conducted with the approval of the Basel ethics board.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.