Clinical Experience With a Multidisciplinary Model of Vascular Ultrasound for the Evaluation for Giant Cell Arteritis.

Objective: Vascular ultrasound (VUS) is a first-line test for giant cell arteritis (GCA) in Europe but has been of limited use in the United States. We report clinical experience with a multidisciplinary model of VUS for the evaluation of GCA at a large US medical center.

Methods: Patients who underwent VUS for evaluation of GCA between 2013 and 2017 were reviewed.

Clinically isolated aortitis: imaging features and clinical outcomes: comparison with giant cell arteritis and giant cell aortitis.

(1) describe imaging features of CIA, (2) compare dilation rate and wall thickening of aortic aneurysms in patients with CIA versus those with giant cell arteritis/aortitis (GCA), (3) present clinical outcomes of CIA patients. Retrospective search of electronic records from 2004 to 2018 yielded 71 patients, 52 of whom were female, with a mean age of 67.5 ± 9.

Follow-up vascular ultrasounds in patients with giant cell arteritis.

Objectives: Literature describing follow-up vascular ultrasound (VUS) in giant cell arteritis (GCA) is limited. We report our experience with follow-up VUS obtained in clinical care of patients with GCA.

Methods: We retrospectively identified GCA patients with an abnormal initial VUS, defined as circumferential hypoechoic wall thickening ("halo sign"), or circumferential hyperechoic wall thickening without evidence of arteriosclerosis or arteritis, who subsequently underwent follow-up VUS during 2013-2018.

Investigating the Association of Giant Cell Arteritis with Varicella Zoster Virus in Temporal Artery Biopsies or Ascending Aortic Resections.

Objective: A variety of infectious agents, including varicella zoster virus (VZV), have been hypothesized to play a role in the pathogenesis of giant cell arteritis (GCA). The detectability of the virus in patients with GCA is debatable. To further investigate an association between GCA and VZV infection, 10 years of GCA cases were evaluated for VZV by immunohistochemistry (IHC).

In search of a candidate pathogen for giant cell arteritis: sequencing-based characterization of the giant cell arteritis microbiome.

Objective: To characterize the microbiome of the temporal artery in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA), and to apply an unbiased and comprehensive shotgun sequencing-based approach to determine whether there is an enrichment of candidate pathogens in the affected tissue.

Methods: Temporal artery biopsy specimens were collected from patients at a single institution over a period of 4 years, and unbiased DNA sequencing was performed on 17 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens. Twelve of the 17 patients fulfilled the clinical and histopathologic criteria for GCA, and the other 5 patients served as controls.

Clinical course and management of a consecutive series of patients with "healed temporal arteritis".

Objective: To describe the clinical course and management of patients with a pathologic diagnosis of "healed" giant cell arteritis (GCA), and to determine whether previously published histological descriptions of healed arteritis can identify patients with a greater likelihood of clinically significant arteritis.

Methods: All temporal artery biopsy reports between 1994 and 2003 were examined for a diagnosis of "healed arteritis." Two rheumatologists abstracted the medical record for presenting features, physical findings, comorbid conditions, and data on treatment and outcomes.

Characterization of relapses in adult idiopathic inflammatory myopathies.

The objective of the current report was to determine the relapse rates and characterize the nature of relapses during the disease course of adult patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM). A retrospective cohort study of 53 medical records of patients with polymyositis (PM), dermatomyositis (DM), connective tissue disease (CTD)-associated myositis, and malignancy-associated myositis at an academic rheumatology center was performed. Medical records were reviewed to determine clinical presentation, initial treatment, and clinical follow-up, with an emphasis on relapses.