Temporal Arteritis: A Case Report

Temporal arthritis (TA) is a systemic inflammatory vasculitis with unknown etiology, which involves large and medium sized arteries. A wide spectrum of systemic, neurological and ophthalmological complications appears in the course of the disease the most serious of which is visual impairment leading to permanent blindness in 60% of the cases. TA is diagnosed through an elevated ESR (>60 mm/Hg) and pathological findings of arterial biopsy. It is considered as one of the urgent neurological cases in which the patient should be treated with corticostroid immediately after diagnosis. The subject of this research was a 62-year-old male who had had headache associated with fatigue, night sweats and low mood for four month. The diagnosis of TA was made considering an elevated ESR and temporal artery biopsy findings. Treatment with prednisolone was initiated and continued for 19 months resulting in complete recovery.