Giant Cell Arteritis

Question: Can anyone give me any info regarding the illness Giant Cell Arteritis?.? My mother suffers from this,it's a condition to do with inflammation of the arteries.Apart from a high dose of steroids the Doctors don't know much about it.Does anyone else out there suffer from this?

Answer: I don't suffer from this, but I have seen patients with it. There is so much unknown about this disease and there is a lot of overlap with this disease and polymyalgia rheumatica, so your mother is lucky to have gotten a diagnosis. There is evidence that adjunctive treatment with methotrexate lowers the risk of relapse so you could advise that your mother ask about this. I'm sure you can trust your doctor to know what's best. Make sure that your mother is on the look out for temporal headaches and visual problems because temporal arteritis can cause blindness. I'm sorry I don't know any more about the disease.

Question: Does anyone know about "Giant Cell Arteritis" with no pulse or blood pressure in either arm?

Answer: A giant cell artery is detected by a biopsy and treated with cortisone..this is also known as "temporal Artery"..it is the main artery of the neck. Chronic medical conditions are diabetes , eplipsepy and chronic fatigue syndrome.,

Question: Anyone had giant cell arteritis ? It isn't arthritis, it's arteritis, it's different and can lead quickly to permanent blindness. I had to have surgery on my optic artery about a year ago, now it looks like the same symptoms are back again on top of this polymyalgia. I'm wanting to know if any of you have had it, and what happened? Nate, a good percentage of people who have polymyalgia get this GCA too. That's why they did the artery biopsy last time I was getting symptoms. I've got a top notch specialist, and we're watching it , I wanted to know if anyone else has had it.

Answer: Huh?......I've never even heard of that, dang it sounds serious, you better stay on top of it...........ok, this is an ad edit: I just went and found two sites with the word "arteritis",....the swelling of the interior of the blood viens in the neck, shoulder and head but easpecially in the head and more exactly the "temples" and nerve connections "IE you optic nerve" possibly inherited genetically or the result of viral or environmental conditions. Sounds almost exactly like what I am experiencing, in fact I'm going to ask my doctor about it on the 23d. some of the supposed symptoms include headaches that occur when you are young as migraines?.....this is me!.....lack of sight?.....this is me?........dang Lizzie you really need to stay on guard, we dont need you going blind. Nathan

Question: giant cell arteritis? my mum could have GCA am i going to lose her, she could have emphysemia too , are both of these conditions putting too much of a strain on her heart? i am so worried for her please help

Answer: No, dont worry, both of these diseases are treatable, not curable, but with the right medication she will be with you for a lot longer yet.

Question: what is giant cell arteritis? It was caused by a bite from an insect thought it was a tick

Answer: Giant cell arteritis is an inflammatory condition that involves the body's immune and inflammatory system attacking the wall and lining of arteries. The inflammation can involve lymphocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils and multinucleated giant cells, thus the name. The inflammatory lesion resembles something called a granuloma and the kind of inflammation is often called granulomatous inflammation. It may look like something caused by infection with tuberculosis or caused by inclusion of a foreign body, like the mouth parts of a tick, but giant cell arteritis typically has no virus, bacterium or foreign material in it. A tick bite can cause a granuloma but it is not likely to be associated with the wall of an artery. Giant cell arteritis can involve the temporal artery, in which case it might be called temporal arteritis. Since the temporal arteries supply oxygenated blood to the eyes, damage to this vessel caused by the inflammation can result in partial or complete blindness. Although there's no cure for giant cell arteritis, immediate treatment with corticosteroid medications usually relieves symptoms and prevents loss of vision. I hope this helps

Question: Do you know anyone to have had GCA? Giant Cell Arteritis If so, has this person gotten better?

Answer: www.google.com has a great deal of information that you could use to find your answers , while yahoo answer is more likely to be better for people's opinions.. thanks.