Giant cell arteritis and spinal cord compression: an overlap syndrome?

We describe 2 patients with spinal cord compression that occurred in the course of biopsy-proven giant cell arteritis (GCA). One case was due to an epidural tumorlike inflammatory lesion, the other to a concentric inflammatory thickening of the meninges. Both patients were highly corticodependent; they had low-titer anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies but no antimyeloperoxidase or antiproteinase 3 autoantibodies.