Giant Cell Arteritis

[PATSY007]

My mohter is 79 and was just diagnosed with Gian Cell Arteritis, but has not had a biopsy.  She is allergic to prednesone so has not been able to start any steroid treatments.  My question: Is there any other treatment for this disease other than steroids?

[transuster]

There are less invasive techniques for diagnosing temporal arteritis (giant cell) than TAB temporal artery biopsy which has extreme morbidity.  Such as PET screening, MRI, MRA, duplex and color ultrasounds.  Just because TAB is the "gold standard" does NOT mean it should be recommended as a course of action for every potential patient!  I would like to know as well if there are other treatments because I have temporal arteritis as well.

[txsilver]

There are several articles online regarding color duplex sonography as an alternative to TAB.

[anna875]

My mother was diagnosed with giant cell (temporal) arthritis when she was 64. It was very rough the first year, the side effects were terrible. There were weeks where she couldn't hardly do anything. It would just come and go week per week. After the first year, things were smoother, not the best but better. She recovered but had a brief relapse at age 70. Now she is 88 and doing fine.

[txsilver]

Thank you for sharing your mother's encouraging story!  It is good to see success stories posted as it gives us all hope.