Course: Painless Visual Loss in a Septuagenarian
CME Credits: 1.00
Released: 2021-03-18
A patient in their late 70s with a history of Crohn disease, coronary artery disease, hypercholesterolemia, and transient ischemic attack presented with sudden, painless, left-sided vision loss. They denied headache, scalp tenderness, and jaw claudication. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was 103 mm/h and a magnetic resonance angiographic examination of the brain was negative for mass, infarction, and hemorrhage. Examination results of a right, superficial, temporal artery biopsy specimen showed chronic, nongranulomatous inflammation surrounding adventitial vessels and extensive subintimal fibrosis, without giant cells or segmental loss of the internal elastic lamina, which was interpreted as compatible with temporal arteritis. High-dose corticosteroid therapy was initiated (1 g methylprednisolone intravenously for 3 days followed by 60 mg/d of oral prednisone).
Educational Objective
Based on this clinical scenario and the accompanying image, understand how to arrive at a correct diagnosis.
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