Giant Cell Arteritis

Giant cell arteritis is a type of vasculitis that affects some of your larger arteries. It's sometimes called temporal arteritis because it very often affects an artery on your temple (the side of your head).

• Giant cell arteritis usually involves the large arteries that go from your heart to your neck and head

• Doctors don’t know what causes giant cell arteritis

• It usually affects only people over 55

• You may have severe headaches, pain in your scalp when you brush your hair, and pain in your jaw when you chew food

• Giant cell arteritis may lead to blindness or stroke if you don’t get treatment right away

• Doctors do a blood test and a biopsy (take a sample of tissue) from one of your arteries

Doctors don’t know what causes giant cell arteritis.

Symptoms of giant cell arteritis may start suddenly or come on slowly over several weeks.

You may have general symptoms such as fever, sweating, and feeling tired and ill. About half of people have stiff, painful muscles in their neck, shoulders, and hips. The pain and stiffness are worse in the morning, similar to what happens in polymyalgia rheumatica.

Specific symptoms depend on which artery is affected and can include:

• Severe, throbbing headache in your temples or the back of your head

• Blurry vision, double vision, sudden blindness in one eye

• Jaw pain when chewing

• A stroke

Rarely, giant cell arteritis affects your aorta, the main artery coming out of your heart. You may get chest pain caused by an aortic aneurysm or aortic dissection.

If your symptoms seem like giant cell arteritis, doctors will do:

• Blood tests

• Biopsy of one of your temporal arteries (take a piece of the artery in your temple to look at under a microscope)

To treat giant cell arteritis, doctors will have you take:

They'll try to give you the medicine as soon as possible to prevent blindness.

• Diabetes

• High blood pressure

• Thinning of their bones

• Cataracts

stroke.