Oral and ocular/orbital manifestations of temporal arteritis: a disease with deceptive clinical symptoms and devastating consequences.
Temporal arteritis (TA) is a chronic, systemic vasculitis most often presenting with severe headaches localized in the temporal region, low-grade fever, anorexia, weight loss and generalized malaise. Besides these typical characteristics, a number of vague and non-specific oral and/or ocular symptoms may also be present. A search using Medline (1955-2006) was performed for unusual oral and ocular/orbital presentations of TA. A variety of oral and ocular/orbital manifestations associated with TA have been reported. These can mislead physicians, causing a delay in establishing a diagnosis and initiating treatment. Increased awareness is necessary for the prompt recognition of this potentially devastating disease. Particularly, dentists and ophthalmologists should include TA in their differential diagnosis, as they may be the first to deal with these patients.
Paraskevas
Kosmas I
KI
Department of Clinical Biochemistry (Vascular Disease Prevention Clinic), Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG, UK. paraskevask@hotmail.com
Boumpas
Dimitrios T
DT
Vrentzos
George E
GE
Mikhailidis
Dimitri P
DP
D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D013700:Giant Cell Arteritis / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D009916:Orbital Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*