Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To quantify the contractility of temporal artery biopsy specimens, and analyze the difference in contractility between specimens positive for and specimens negative for giant cell arteritis. Methods: All patients undergoing temporal artery biopsy from May 2003 through November 2003 were retrospectively reviewed. For all patients, the in vivo length of the temporal artery specimen was measured using a standardized millimeter ruler. The ex vivo length of the specimen was measured immediately after excision. The relative degree of contraction was calculated by obtaining the difference between in vivo and ex vivo length, and then dividing the difference by the in vivo length to obtain a percentage of contraction. The unpaired t–test and Fisher exact test were used to compare the degree of contractility between specimens positive for giant cell arteritis and specimens negative for giant cell arteritis. Results: Twenty–six temporal artery biopsies were performed, with twenty–three specimens negative and three specimens positive for giant cell arteritis as confirmed by histopathology. The average degree of contraction was 7.1% for specimens positive and 24.5% for specimens negative for giant cell arteritis (P=0.004). Fisher exact test revealed that biopsy–proven giant cell arteritis was associated with arteriole contraction of less than 15% (P=0.008). Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that the temporal artery does contract after excision. Contractility was significantly greater in negative specimens when compared to specimens positive for giant cell arteritis. This may be due to decreased arteriole elasticity from inflammatory cell infiltration in giant cell arteritis. Although our sample size is small, our study suggests that temporal artery contraction of 15% or less is significantly more likely to be associated with giant cell arteritis.
Keywords: neuro–ophthalmology: diagnosis • visual impairment: neuro–ophthalmological disease • pathology: human