Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T05:04:04.113Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Psychiatric Aspects of Temporal Arteritis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

R. Vereker
R. Vereker*
Affiliation:
Brentwood Mental Hospital, Essex
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Temporal arteritis, also called giant cell arteritis, or cranial arteritis, was first described in 1932 by Horton and Magath. This syndrome is caused by a reversible inflammation of the cranial arteries, especially the temporal arteries (which are visibly inflamed), causing headache, mental and neurological disturbances as well as general toxic signs, and almost always occurring after the age of fifty-five years.

Pathology.—In the arteries involved there is a subacute inflammation of the adventitia and media with focal necrosis of the media, fragmentation and destruction of the internal elastic lamina with gross hypertrophy of the intima, often leading to occlusion of the vessel. In many cases giant cells are found in the media. Besides the cranial arteries other vessels are sometimes involved, e.g., the carotids (Scott and Maxwell 1941; Gilmour 1941), subclavian, coronary and femoral arteries (Cooke et al., 1946), post-auricular (Dick and Freeman 1940).

Aetiology is unknown. There is no evidence of tuberculosis or syphilis. A low-grade bacterial or virus infection of the arteries has been postulated, but repeated bacteriological examinations of the biopsied arteries have failed to isolate any organisms. The predilection which the condition shows for the temporal and cranial arteries is unexplained.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 98 , Issue 411 , April 1952 , pp. 280 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1952 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibilography

Andersen, T., Acta Med. Scand., 1947, 128, 151.Google Scholar
Bain, C. W. C., Lancet, 1938, i, 517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourne, W. A., Brit. Med. J., 1947, ii, 270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowers, J. M., Arch. Int. Med., 1940, 66, 384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brock, O. J., and Ytrehus, O., Nord. Med., 1946, 30, 1251, quoted by Andersen (1947).Google Scholar
Chassnoff, J., and Vorzimer, J. J., Ann. Int. Med., 1944, 20, 327.Google Scholar
Cohen, H., and Harrison, C. V., Journ. Clin. Path., 1948, 1, 212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, W. T., Cloake, P. C. P., Govan, A. D. T., and Colbeck, J. C., Quart. J. Med., 1946, 15, 47.Google Scholar
Crosby, R. C., and Wadsworth, R. C., Arch. Int. Med., 1948, 81, 431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtis, H. C., Amer. J. Med., 1946, 1, 437.Google Scholar
Dick, A. P., Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1948, 41, 379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dick, C. F., and Freeman, G., J. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1940, 114, 645.Google Scholar
Frisk, A., Acta Med. Scand., 1948, 130, 455.Google Scholar
Gilmour, J. R., J. Path. Bact., 1941. 53, 263.Google Scholar
Harrison, C. V., J. Clin. Path., 1948, 1, 197.Google Scholar
Horton, B. J., and Magath, T. B., Proc. Mayo. Clin., 1937, 12, 548.Google Scholar
Idem and Brown, G. E., ibid., 1932, 7, 770.Google Scholar
Jennings, G. H., Lancet. 1938, i, 424.Google Scholar
Johnson, R. H. Harley, R. D., and Horton, B. T., Amer. Journ. Ophth., 1943, 26, 147.Google Scholar
Kaye, S. L., Lancet, 1949, i, 1039.Google Scholar
Keen, H., Brit. Med. J., 1950, i, 993.Google Scholar
Kilbourne, E. D., and Wolff, H. G., Ann. Int. Med., 1946, 24, 1; Lancet, 1949, ii, 1142.Google Scholar
Meade, D. K., Blumenthal, L. S., and Holmes, D. B., Southern Med. Journ., 1950. 43, 40.Google Scholar
Migone, L., and Mortara, M., Minerva Med., 1949, 2, 477.Google Scholar
Miller, H. G., Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1949, 42, 497.Google Scholar
Murphy, J. R., New York State J. Med., 1942, 42, 3336.Google Scholar
Myers, L., and Lord, J. W., J. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1948, 136, 169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pagliardi, E., and Vitelli, A., Minerva Med., 1949, 2, 504.Google Scholar
Plaut, A., J. New York State Med., 1942, 42, 346.Google Scholar
Post, L. T., and Sanders, T. E., Amer. J. Ophth., 1944, 27, 19.Google Scholar
Rice-Oxley, J. M., and Cooke, A. M., Lancet, 1951, i, 89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, A. M., and Askey, J. M., J. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1948, 137, 697.Google Scholar
Robertson, K., Brit. Med. J., 1947, ii, 168.Google Scholar
Römer, K., Fors. Neur. Pschiat., 1949, 17/5, 222.Google Scholar
Schaefer, C. L., and Sanders, C. E., Amer. Heart J., 1942, 24, 410.Google Scholar
Scott, T., and Maxwell, E. S., New Internat. Clin., 1941, 2, 220.Google Scholar
Shannon, E. W., and Solomon, J., J. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1945, 127, 647.Google Scholar
Smith, C., and Green, P. B., Amer. Journ., Ophth. 1949, 32, 687.Google Scholar
Sprague, P. H., and Mackenzie, W. C., Canad. Med. Assoc J., 1940, 43, 562.Google Scholar
Sproule, E. E., New York State J. Med., 1942, 42, 345, and Hawthorne, J. J. Amer. J. Path., 1937, 13, 311.Google Scholar
Wilson, W. A., Annals West. Med. Surg., 1949, 3, 177.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.