This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Investigations

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

The required investigations in temporal arteritis show:

  • raised ESR*:
    • generally above 70 mm/hr
    • often more than 100 mm/hour
  • elevated CRP in active disease
  • normochromic, normocytic anaemia and elevated platelet count may be seen
  • 1/3 of the patients have mildly abnormal liver function tests, particularly alkaline phosphatase (1)
  • tenderness and lack of pulsation of one or both temporal arteries
  • temporal artery biopsy diagnostic but may miss focal lesions and necessitate repeat biopsy

N.B. temporal artery biopsy remains positive for up to 40 hours after the initiation of steroid therapy.

Other advanced investigations include (1):

  • duplex ultrasound
  • computer tomography (CT)
  • magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
  • 18F-FDG-PET

* prevalence of temporal arteritis with a normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate is unknown but estimated to be 2 to 8.7 percent of all cases of temporal arteritis (2).

Reference:


Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.