A Fatal Case of Giant-Cell Arteritis (Temporal or Cranial Arteritis) with Ocular Involvement

Temporal arteritis, also known as cranial or giant-cell arteritis, produces severe visual disturbances in more than 50% of all cases. The clinical ocular manifestations have been described by several observers 1,2 but inasmuch as these patients usually live for a number of years after the appearance of their visual symptoms, their eyes rarely become available for histologic examination. A fatal case of giant-cell arteritis will be reported here in which the patient's eyes were examined clinically and histologically. The anatomic basis for some of the clinically observed ocular manifestations of this disease will be discussed. The ocular and systemic manifestations of temporal arteritis may be explained on the basis of ischemia in the involved tissues as a result of partial or complete occlusion of the vascular supply. The severity of functional loss depends on the degree of obstruction of blood supply to the affected part and on the collateral blood