Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) or temporal arteritis is a systemic vasculitis (inflammation
of the artery walls) that generally affects people over 50 years old, with a peak
frequency between 70 and 80 years. The diagnosis is sometimes long and difficult to make
due to non-specific clinical signs but must be rapid because of the risk of arterial
occlusion that can lead to vision loss or stroke.
Two GCA presentations can be detected :
an aortic form, i.e. inflammation of the aorta with specific clinical signs
(abdominal pain, weight loss, ...)
a cephalic form with unusual headaches, jaw pain, scalp pain, shoulder and/or pelvic
girdle pain, and inflammatory biological signs.
The reference method for diagnosis has been based on clinical presumption. The presence
of an inflammatory syndrome in biology and the analysis of a temporal artery biopsy.
Since the mid-1990s, the improvement of ultrasound techniques, particularly with the
appearance of high frequency probes, made it possible to detect inflammation of the
temporal arteries in some cases. Each center published retrospective studies with the aim
of avoiding biopsy but without really allowing the modification of clinical practices.
A prospective multicenter study (doi: 10.7326/M23-3417) published in 2024 proved that in
patients with high clinical probability of GCA, in case of bilateral positivity on
temporal artery ultrasound (hypoechoic halo) it was not necessary to resort to a biopsy.
When the ultrasound of bilateral arteries (particularly temporal and axillary) showed an
abnormality such as a halo (inflammation), the diagnosis was made and did not require a
biopsy.
When the ultrasound was negative (or only present on one artery or another arterial
axis), biopsy was necessary. In 50% of cases, the biopsy result was negative. Among these
negative cases, a certain number were nevertheless retained as Giant Cell Arteritis,
according to the clinician's assessment, and others were subjected to differential
diagnoses.
While with a biopsy the time to perform the procedure and obtain its interpretation was
10 days, ultrasound only requires one day to make a diagnosis.
This study is at the origin of a change in diagnosing and treating patients with this
Giant Cell Arteritis.
In order to facilitate early diagnosis, a fast-track pathway has been set up based on the
model published in 2024 (doi: 10.26635/6965.6376).
The investigators propose to evaluate the performance of this fast-track clinic.