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| Diffuse
inflammation of the arteries may lead to the condition of temporal
arteritis. Clinically, the
patient may note a sudden painless loss of vision in one eye with
characteristic altitudinal type of visual field loss.
In addition, the patient may have generalized symptoms of
polymyalgia rheumatica such as low grade fever, loss of appetite,
generalized weakness, and jaw claudication.
Disc examination in the acute stage reveals a small amount of
swelling and irregularity of the disc with normal vascularity(#22095).
Histopathologically, this entity is characterized by a
granulomatous inflammation of the arteries.
The lesion causing the visual loss is thought to involve
obstruction of a posterior ciliary artery.
The diagnosis of this entity is confirmed by taking a biopsy of the
temporal artery(#22096). This
pathologic examination of the temporal artery reveals a granulomatous
inflammation of the wall of the artery characterized by epitheliod cells
and giant cells(#22098). In
addition, the internal elastic lamina is often discontinuous and
fragmented. These arteries
also characteristically show moderately severe arterial sclerotic changes.
-(#27995)
is a slide of an optic nerve infarct secondary to temporal arteritis, and
(#28022, #28028) are of old and primary optic atrophy, respectively.
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| Clinical
#22095 |
High
Power #22098 |
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| Med.
Power #22096 |
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