Rheumatology Medical News about giant cell arteritis;bilateral temporal artery biopsy

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Rate of discordant findings in bilateral temporal artery biopsy to diagnose giant cell arteritis
Journal of Rheumatology, 04/10/09

Breuer GB et al. - Data suggest that performing bilateral temporal artery biopsies increases the diagnostic sensitivity of the procedure by up to 12.7%, compared to unilateral biopsies.

Methods

Study to determine as to what extent performing simultaneous bilateral temporal artery biopsies might increase the diagnostic sensitivity in giant cell arteritis (GCA)
173 consecutive pathology reports of temporal artery biopsies reviewed for histological findings by a single pathologist
Rate of discordance of biopsy results was calculated in pts with GCA

Results

Biopsies were performed bilaterally and simultaneously in 132 cases; 51 had positive results
In 38 the biopsy was positive on both sides (concordant results)
In 13 pts only one side was positive (discordant results)
Therefore 12.7% of the pts could have been misdiagnosed as biopsy-negative had a biopsy been done only unilaterally in those 51 cases

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