Clinical Pearls and Myths in Vasculitis

Giant Cell Arteritis: MythWhat does one do if the biopsy is negative but GCA stillseems likely?In such cases, review the biopsy with the pathologist toconfirm the adequacy of the specimen and the negativereading.It is also important to ensure that a Congo red stain of thetissues was performed to exclude amyloid deposition,because amyloidosis may mimic GCA closely.One may also consider having a temporal artery biopsyperformed on the contralateral side if both sideswere not biopsied initially.