Effect of biopsy length on the rate of positive temporal artery biopsies.
Clin Exp Rheumatol
; 27(1 Suppl 52): S10-3, 2009.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19646339
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To investigate the relationship between temporal artery biopsy (TAB) length and the diagnostic sensitivity for giant cell arteritis (GCA).METHODS:
TAB pathology reports were reviewed for histological findings and formalin-fixed TAB lengths. The patient's charts were reviewed for clinical data. TAB was considered positive if there was a mononuclear cell infiltrate in the vessel wall. Biopsy-negative GCA was diagnosed when patients fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology classification criteria, in addition to favorable rapid response to steroid therapy. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to the clinical and histological features Biopsy-positive GCA, biopsy-negative GCA, and no GCA.RESULTS:
305 TAB reports of 173 individuals were reviewed. When only GCA patients TAB-positive and TAB-negative were considered, TAB in the biopsy-positive patients was significantly longer than in biopsy-negative cases (p=0.008). The rate of positive biopsies was only 19% with TAB length of 5 mm or less, but increased to 71-79% with TAB lengths of 6-20 mm, and to 89% when TAB length was longer than 20 mm. Only 3% of positive biopsies were 5 mm or shorter, compared to 27% of TAB in biopsy-negative GCA cases (p<0.001).CONCLUSION:
TAB with post-fixation length shorter than 5 mm carries an increased biopsy-negative rate therefore longer TAB length is required for accurate diagnosis. Increasing post-fixation TAB length beyond 20 mm may further increase the rate of positive biopsies, although data were insufficient in that regard.
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Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Arterias Temporales
/
Arteritis de Células Gigantes
/
Biopsia
Tipo de estudio:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Clin Exp Rheumatol
Año:
2009
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Israel