The Turkish Journal of Vascular Surgery

Yazarlar: Orhan Saim DEMİRTÜRK, Hüseyin Ali TÜNEL, V. Deniz YERDELEN, Melih ÇEKİNMEZ, İsa COŞKUN, Öner GÜLCAN

Konular:-

Anahtar Kelimeler:Giant cell arteritis; biopsy

Özet: Objective: Surgical biopsy is an important diagnostic tool in estabkishing diagnosis in temporal arte- ritis cases. However different rates positivite biopsies have been reported from various centers. In this study we evaluated our biopsy findings with regard to biopsy positivity and its contribution to therapy. Material and Methods: 10 patients underwent surgical temporal artery biopsy with temporal arteritis pre-diagnosis in our medical center between 2005 and 2010. 6 of these biopsies were performed by the neurosurgery department, 3 by cardiovasdcular surgery, and 1 was made by plastic and reconstructive surgery. The same biopsy method was used by the three surgical teams. Results: There were 6 female and 4 male patients . The average age of the patients was 69. No complications occured due to the biopsies. According to pathological examination 4 biopsies out of 10 were posi- tive for temporal arteritis. These patients were begun steriod treatment. In a fifth patient who had negative biopsy, because the clinical findings ruled out other diseases, diagnosis of temporal arteritis was made and steroid treatment was begun. Conclusion: There are different wievs in the literature with regard to the worth of temporal artery bi- opsy. The biopsy positivity rate in the literature are reported aroud 23%. Our 40% positivity in our biopsies makes us think that temporal artery biopsies are worth performing in patients with suspected temporal arteritis.

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