Temporal arteritis with low erythrocyte sedimentation rate: a review of five cases.
We compared 5 patients who had biopsy-proven temporal arteritis and erythrocyte sedimentation rates (ESR) less than 50 mm/hour with 25 patients who had temporal arteritis and high ESR and with 10 patients who had negative temporal artery biopsy results and low ESR. Patients with low-ESR temporal arteritis were similar to the other groups, except that they had a higher mean hemoglobin level than the high-ESR group and a significant increase in the percentage of patients (4 of 5) who had a previous diagnosis of polymyalgia rheumatica or had received steroid therapy compared with either of the other groups. The latter finding suggests that even low-dose steroid therapy can lower the ESR in patients with temporal arteritis. We conclude that the ESR is low in only a small percentage of patients with temporal arteritis, and that most of these patients have a history of polymyalgia rheumatica or steroid therapy.
Wise
C M
CM
Department of Medicine, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27103.
Agudelo
C A
CA
Chmelewski
W L
WL
McKnight
K M
KM
D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D001799:Blood Sedimentation; D005260:Female; D013700:Giant Cell Arteritis / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011111:Polymyalgia Rheumatica / Q000150:complications; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013256:Steroids / Q000627:therapeutic use; D013699:Temporal Arteries / Q000473:pathology
D013256:Steroids