A Novel Ultrasound Finding for the Diagnosis of Giant Cell Arteritis: Comparison With Temporal Artery Biopsy Findings

Yusuke Kudo; Karin Hara; Michito Murayama; Sanae Kaga; Satomi Omotehara; Takahito Iwai; Masaru Kato; Utano Tomaru; Yoshihiro Matsuno; Akihiro Ishizu

doi:10.1002/jcu.23869

A Novel Ultrasound Finding for the Diagnosis of Giant Cell Arteritis: Comparison With Temporal Artery Biopsy Findings

J Clin Ultrasound. 2024 Oct 12. doi: 10.1002/jcu.23869. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yusuke Kudo^{1

2}, Karin Hara³, Michito Murayama⁴, Sanae Kaga^{1

4}, Satomi Omotehara^{1

2}, Takahito Iwai^{1

2}, Masaru Kato⁵, Utano Tomaru⁶, Yoshihiro Matsuno⁶, Akihiro Ishizu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Diagnostic Center for Sonography, Hokkaido University Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
² Division of Clinical Laboratory and Transfusion Medicine, Hokkaido University Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
³ Department of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
⁴ Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
⁵ Department of Rheumatology, Endocrinology and Nephrology, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
⁶ Department of Surgical Pathology, Hokkaido University Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.

PMID: 39394890
DOI: 10.1002/jcu.23869

Abstract

Hypoechoic halo is a typical ultrasound finding in giant cell arteritis (GCA), but it may be a false positive due to arteriosclerosis. Therefore, we focused on the segmental distribution of GCA lesions, defined the luminal irregularity in long-axis images as the string of beads sign, and examined its diagnostic ability. As a result, the C-statistic of hypoechoic halo and string of beads sign was better than that of hypoechoic halo alone (1.00 vs. 0.89). Based on the above, the diagnostic ability of GCA can be improved by adding the string of beads sign to the conventional hypoechoic halo.

Keywords: giant cell arteritis; hypoechoic halo; temporal artery; ultrasound.