Background/Purpose: The presence of a hypoechoic halo of the temporal arteries on Color-Doppler sonography (CDS) has high specificity and acceptable sensitivity for the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis (GCA). However, it is unclear whether patients with a positive halo sign differ from those without such a sign. The aim of our study was to evaluate the correlations between the presence of a hypoechoic halo, on the one hand, and clinical, laboratory, and histological parameters, on the other, in patients with biopsy-proven GCA.
Methods: We analyzed the clinical records of 105 consecutive patients with biopsy-proven GCA (including those with transmural cell infiltration, small-vessel vasculitis and vasa vasorum vasculitis of the temporal arteries) who underwent CDS of the temporal arteries before temporal artery. Mean age was 74±8 years, while females were 72.4%. A hypoechoic halo larger than 0.4 mm around the temporal artery lumen on CDS was considered positive. Correlations were sought by chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test as appropriate using SPSS version 18.0.
Results: The presence of a hypoechoic halo significantly correlated with jaw claudication (58.8% vs 25.9%; p=0.001, odds ratio [OR] 4.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8-9.3), abnormalities of temporal artery on clinical examination (67.3% vs 46,9; p=0.041, OR 2.3 [CI 1.0-5.3]), elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate [91.5% vs 59.2%; p=0.001, OR 7.4 [CI 2.3-23.94], and the presence of giant cells on temporal artery biopsy [66.7% vs 29.4%; p=0.0001, OR 4.8 [CI 2.0-11.4]. In addition, patients with a hypoechoic halo had higher levels of blood platelets (396875 +116274 vs 327954 + 103181; p= 0.005, unpaired two-tailed t-test). However, no correlation was found between the presence of a ultrasonographic halo and visual loss.
Conclusion: These provide evidence for a close correlation between the presence of a hypoechoic halo on CDS of the temporal arteries and jaw claudication, giant cells on temporal artery biopsies, and elevated levels of erythrocyte sedimentation rate in patients with GCA. In contrast, a positive halo sign did not predict visual loss.
Disclosure:
L. Boiardi,
None;
G. Pazzola,
None;
A. Cavazza,
None;
F. Muratore,
None;
G. Restuccia,
None;
A. Nicolini,
None;
G. Germanò,
None;
N. Pipitone,
None;
P. Macchioni,
None;
N. Possemato,
None;
G. Bajocchi,
None;
I. Padovano,
None;
O. Addimanda,
None;
A. Lo Gullo,
None;
M. G. Catanoso,
None;
C. Salvarani,
None.
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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/correlation-between-hypoechoic-halo-of-the-temporal-arteries-and-clinical-laboratory-and-temporal-artery-biopsy-findings-in-patients-with-giant-cell-arteritis/