2016 ACR Revised Criteria for Early Diagnosis of Giant Cell (Temporal) Arteritis

Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) is a systemic vasculitis involving medium to large sized vessels most commonly the cranial branches of the arteries originating from the aortic arch. It is called temporal arteritis too, because of frequent/ classic involvement of temporal artery in this vasculitis. All patients are more than 50 years old and women can be affected much more than men. The common clinical manifestations of GCA are recent headache, visual disturbance, polymyalgia rheumatica, jaw claudication, fever and/or anemia and especially tender and/or enlarged and/or pulseless temporal artery. Elevated Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) and anemia of normocytic/normochromic are common and the biopsy of temporal artery is the most important procedure within approaching towards the diagnosis of GCA. Compatible pathology for GCA is vascular and/or perivascular fibrinoid necrosis along with leukocyte infiltration and granuloma. A negative temporal artery biopsy can be seen in up to one-half of the cases with GCA. As you know, American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria is used for classification of GCA and it is not diagnostic. By this letter, the corresponding author wants to deliver a new criteria for early diagnosis of this disease.