Case Report


Giant cell arteritis in silence: A case report and literature review

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1 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2 Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Address correspondence to:

Ahmed Shah

Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario,

Canada

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Article ID: 100047Z11KC2020

doi: 10.5348/100047Z11KC2020CR

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How to cite this article

Cui K, Shah A, Dhillon S, Lau A, Naqvi A, Alowami S. Giant cell arteritis in silence: A case report and literature review. J Case Rep Images Pathol 2020;6:100047Z11KC2020.

ABSTRACT


Introduction: Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a type of large vessel vasculitis of unknown etiology, and it typically manifests with cranial or constitutional symptoms.

Case Report: We report a case of asymptomatic GCA identified incidentally on an excisional biopsy for scalp squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), whose temporal artery biopsy performed subsequently showed transmural lymphocytic and granulomatous infiltrate with giant cells. To our best knowledge, this is the only case ever reported on incidental GCA in the setting of cutaneous SCC.

Conclusion: Our case highlights the challenges in GCA diagnosis when the lack of clinical symptoms conflicts with the pathology findings. Confirmatory tests including ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and temporal artery biopsy, investigations for extra-cranial manifestations of the GCA, along with regular surveillance are warranted for diagnostic clarification and treatment guidance.

Keywords: Giant cell arteritis, Hypertrophic actinic keratosis, Squamous cell carcinoma, Temporal artery biopsy

SUPPORTING INFORMATION


Author Contributions

Kangping Cui - Conception of the work, Design of the work, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Drafting the work, Revising the work critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published, Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Ahmed Shah - Conception of the work, Design of the work, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Drafting the work, Revising the work critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published, Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Sandeep Dhillon - Conception of the work, Design of the work, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Drafting the work, Revising the work critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published, Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Arthur Lau - Conception of the work, Design of the work, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Drafting the work, Revising the work critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published, Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Asghar Naqvi - Conception of the work, Design of the work, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Drafting the work, Revising the work critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published, Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Salem Alowami - Conception of the work, Design of the work, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Drafting the work, Revising the work critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published, Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Guarantor of Submission

The corresponding author is the guarantor of submission.

Source of Support

None

Consent Statement

This case does not use any specific patient identifiers, and the pictures are of microscopic histology and immunohistochemistry that cannot be used for patient identification purposes. In the department of pathology, we do not directly interact with patients, but all efforts have been made in great detail to anonymize the case as much as possible.

Data Availability

All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Conflict of Interest

Authors declare no conflict of interest.

Copyright

© 2020 Kangping Cui et al. This article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and original publisher are properly credited. Please see the copyright policy on the journal website for more information.