Bilateral Vertebral Artery Vasculitis-A Rare Manifestation of Giant Cell Arteritis and a Difficult Diagnosis Made Possible by 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT

Natasja Degn Justesen; Michael Stormly Hansen; Mads Radmer Jensen; Oliver Niels Klefter; Jane Maestri Brittain; Steffen Hamann

doi:10.3390/diagnostics11050879

Bilateral Vertebral Artery Vasculitis-A Rare Manifestation of Giant Cell Arteritis and a Difficult Diagnosis Made Possible by 2-[¹⁸F]FDG PET/CT

Diagnostics (Basel). 2021 May 14;11(5):879. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11050879.

Authors

Natasja Degn Justesen^{1

2}, Michael Stormly Hansen¹, Mads Radmer Jensen³, Oliver Niels Klefter¹, Jane Maestri Brittain⁴, Steffen Hamann^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark.
² Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark.
³ Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Bispebjerg & Frederiksberg Hospital, University of Copenhagen, 2400 Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴ Department of Clinical Physiology, Nuclear Medicine and PET, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.

Abstract

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common form of large vessel vasculitis. GCA is a medical and ophthalmological emergency, and rapid diagnosis and treatment with high-dose corticosteroids is critical in order to reduce the risk of stroke and sudden irreversible loss of vision. GCA can be difficult to diagnose due to insidious and unspecific symptoms-especially if typical superficial extracranial arteries are not affected. In these cases, verification of clinical diagnosis using temporal artery biopsy is not possible. This example illustrates the diagnostic value of hybrid imaging with 2-deoxy-2-[¹⁸F]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (2-[¹⁸F]FDG PET/CT), and the limitations of the temporal artery biopsy in bilateral vertebral GCA, causing transient ischemic attack in the visual cortex. In addition it indicates that inflammation in the artery wall can be visualized on 2-[¹⁸F]FDG PET/CT despite long term and ongoing high dose glucocorticoid treatment.

Keywords: 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT; bilateral vertebral artery vasculitis; giant cell arteritis; large vessel vasculitis; temporal artery biopsy; vertebrobasilar insufficiency.