41. Arteritis temporalis

Staining: HE

Overview of the slide

Organ: Superficial temporal artery

Description:

Three cross-sections of an artery can be seen. The upper right one is the easiest to examine. We can see giant cells, epithelioid cells, lymphocytes and plasma cells. The lumen of the artery is really narrow and the internal elastic lamina (IEM) is disrupted.

Diagnosis: Temporal arteritis, a form of giant cell arteritis

Upper right section. The dark irregular purplish lining shows the disruption of the IEM.

Etiology:

• Older people
• Females more affected than males

Theory:

Also from the upper right section.

Giant cell arteritis, or temporal arteritis (when it affects the temporal artery) is a granulomatous inflammation that affects large arteries. Characteristic for the disease is that only certain parts of the affected artery show the histological signs of inflammation. If a preparation was taken from one of these parts could a false negative diagnosis be made. Optimally should a longitudinal section of the artery be examined, or multiple cross-sections (which could be why we have three sections here).

From the upper right section. The cells with small cytoplasm and dark nuclei are lymphocytes and plasma cells