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Color Doppler ultrasound of the temporal arteries has emerged as an alternative to biopsy for diagnosing giant cell arteritis (GCA). In this study from six French referral centers, researchers evaluated 165 patients with high clinical suspicion for GCA, using the following diagnostic sequence:
Ultrasound was the initial test (after clinical assessment and laboratory testing). If ultrasound was positive (i.e., “halo sign” in both temporal arteries), no further testing was done.
If ultrasound was negative, temporal artery biopsy was done.
If both ultrasound and biopsy were negative, clinicians still could diagnose GCA if vasculitis was identified on large-vessel imaging (by computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging) or if patients had cl…