WHO SHOULD UNDERGO TEMPORAL ARTERY BIOPSY?
The most important risk factor for having GCA is age. The incidence rate increases with age and peaks in patient groups over 70 years1. In the presence of elevated acute phase reactants, new features in elderly individuals, such as unexplained pain located above the neck, should prompt us to consider the possibility of GCA and the need for TAB8. Recent reports emphasize that GCA may present without clinically evident vascular involvement9. Some of these patients without overt vascular manifestations may present with fever of unknown origin9. Patients with silent GCA have lower hemoglobin values than other patients with GCA10. Isolated polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) may also be a presenting manifestation of GCA9. In Lugo, Northwest Spain, TAB are usually considered in isolated PMR patients if they have constitutional syndrome and/or erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) greater than 80 mm/h11. Following this protocol, we reported 8 (9%) positive TAB from a series of 89 patients with isolat