Giant cell arteritis. Part I. Terminology, classification, clinical manifestations, diagnosis

Giant cell arteritis. Part I. Terminology, classification, clinical manifestations, diagnosis

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Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a vasculitis affecting mainly large and medium-sized arteries, which the classification of systemic vasculitides refers to as those mainly involving the large vessels.GCA is typified by the involvement of extracranial aortic branches and intracranial vessels, the aorta and its large vessels are being affected most frequently.The paper considers the terminology, classification, prevalence, major pathogenic mechanisms, and morphology of GCA.A broad spectrum of its clinical subtypes is due to target vessel stenosis caused by intimal hyperplasia.In 40% of cases, GCA is shown to be accompanied by le boudoir de luna cognac polymyalgia rheumatica that may either precede or manifest simultaneously with GCA, or follow this disease.

The menacing complications of GCA may be visual loss or ischemic strokes at various sites depending on the location of the occluded vessel.Along with the gold standard verification of the diagnosis of GCA, namely temporal artery biopsy, the author indicates other flamingo estate pink moon rose (noninvasive) methods for detection of vascular lesions: color Doppler ultrasonography of the temporal arteries, fluorescein angiography of the retina, mag-netic resonance angiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography to rule out aortic aneurysm.Dynamic 18F positron emission tomography is demonstrated to play a role in the evaluation of therapeutic effectiveness.