Figure 2. Duplex ultrasound of the right temporal artery−transverse view. The white arrow indicates a “halo” sign (a dark/hypoechoic circumferential wall thickening around the lumen), which represents arterial wall edema
[11][19].
- b. Stenoses are characterized by aliasing and persistent diastolic flow by colour Doppler US. The peak systolic velocity (PSV) assessed within the stenosis area by pulsed-wave Doppler US is two or more times greater than the PSV recorded in the prestenotic segment of the vessel, with turbulence at the level of stenosis, associated with diminished velocities distal to the stenosis [30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][26][27][28][29] (Figure 3) [11][19].
-
-
Figure 3. Duplex ultrasound of the right temporal artery−longitudinal view. Indicates a “halo” sign and a stenosis revealed by a turbulent flow and a high PSV in the stenosis area (1 m/s), which is more than twice the PSV in the prestenotic segment of the artery
[11][19].
-
- c. Acute occlusions, wherein the US image is similar to that of acute embolism in different other vessels, with lack of color Doppler signals (even with low pulse repetition frequency and high color gain) in a visible artery lumen filled with hypoechoic material (cloth) [30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][26][27][28][29].
- d. Compression sign. The thickened vessel wall remains visible upon compression by the ultrasound examiner; the wall swelling is hypoechogenic (in acute temporal arteritis), contrasting with the mid-echogenic to hyperechogenic surrounding tissue [38][26].
-
2.3. Duplex and Color-Coded Duplex Sonography of the Large Cervical and Cervico-Brachial Vessels
The Chapel Hill Consensus Conference (2012) considered large vessel vasculitis (LVV) as vasculitis affecting the aorta and its major branches more often than other type of vasculitides; however, any size (large, medium, small) of an artery may be affected
[8,30][8][10].
For example, in GCA, could be affected at the same time: (a) large arteries (e.g., aorta, the subclavian and axillary arteries, the CCAs, the ICAs), (b) medium arteries (e.g., TAs, inner maxillary arteries), and small arteries vascularizing the eye and orbit (e.g., CRA, or PCAs)
[8,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39][8][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][26][27].
LVV GCA has been previously disregarded and underdiagnosed. However, there is important evidence confirming that large arteries are affected in around two-thirds of GCA cases and one-third of patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR)
[39][27].
Sturzenegger asserted that angiography could not illustrate the vessel wall anatomy. Consequently, for diagnosing inflammation of the cervical and cervico-brachial large vessels, US can be very helpful, as it can identify changes of the vessel walls, like dark halo sign (by using B-mode imaging) and it can assess arterial stenosis or occlusions (with pulse-wave-PW Doppler flow velocities measurements, and Color Doppler Duplex sonography)
[30][10].
According to different authors, there are two US features of large vessels GCA:
-
Vessel wall thickening, represented by the dark halo sign, which is homogeneous, circumferential and overlong segments
[8,30][8][10]. According to Diamantopoulos and al, the cut-off limit for vasculitis (GCA) for the CCAs is 1.5 mm and for the axillary arteries is 1 mm
[43][30].
-
Stenosis, due to a segmental inflammation, which produces a discontinuous arterial involvement (hourglass-like)
[8,30][8][10].
The arterial wall inflammation, stenosis, or occlusions of the large arteries (e.g., CCA, ICA) persists for months, despite corticosteroid treatment
[8,30][8][10] (
Figure 4 and
Figure 5)
[10][18].
Figure 4. Large vessel GCA. Duplex ultrasound of the right CCA-transverse view. A dark “halo” sign-a hypoechoic circumferential wall thickening around the lumen (which represents arterial wall edema), and occlusion of the artery (the lumen of the vessel is obstructed) [10][18].
Figure 5. Large vessels GCA. Duplex ultrasound of the right CCA-longitudinal view. The artery presents a dark-hypoechoic circumferential wall thickening (which represents arterial wall edema) [10][18].
2.4. Color Doppler Imaging (CDI) of Orbital (Retro-Bulbar) Vessels
Permanent visual loss has been reported to occur in up to 19%, and visual symptoms in up to 31% of acute GCA cases
[40][28]. Unfortunately, 20% of GCA cases with visual loss have occult GCA, without systemic manifestations
[45][31].
This is why early diagnosis and therapy with glucocorticosteroids protect against visual loss
[46][32].
However, if the visual loss has already appeared therapy with glucocorticosteroids is ineffective
[47][33].
For all these reasons, Diamantopoulos et al. examined the fast-track outpatient GCA clinic (FTC), based on quick clinical, laboratory and US evaluation (scanning in maximum 24 h after clinical exam of just temporal, axillary, and carotid arteries) of the cases suspected to have GCA and immediate therapy if appropriate. The main objective of their study was to assess whether the rate of visual loss in GCA cases was lower in the period with the FTC approach compared with the period before, with the conventional exam. They concluded that the implementation of the FTC in GCA management appeared to significantly decrease the risk of permanent visual loss
[43][30].
In conclusion, a significant percentage of patients with GCA detected by TAB have ophthalmological complications, clinically manifested by unilateral sudden, painless, and sharp loss of vision due to vasculitic involvement of the small retrobulbar arteries in the affected eye
[48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]:
-
Arteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathies (AAION) results from short posterior ciliary arteries (PCAs) vasculitis and the consecutive optic nerve head (ONH) infarction
[48,49,50,51,52,][34]53,[35]54,[55,56,36][37][38][39][40][41][42]57[43], or,
-
Central Retinal Artery Obstruction (CRAO) occurs when the thrombotic blockage produced by the vasculitic process due to GCA is within the optic nerve substance
[48,49,50,51,52,[53,54,35][55,36][56,57][34]37][38][39][40][41][42][43],
Other ophthalmological complications are represented by branch retinal artery occlusion (where arterial branches that supply the inner layer of the retina are affected; their occlusion leading to a sectoral pattern of retinal opacification), diplopia (which is most commonly caused by abducens nerve palsy) and amaurosis fugax (which is a transient monocular vision loss)
[48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43].
According to Schmidt et al., among different patients with acute temporal arteritis and concomitant visual symptoms, unlike for TAB, there was no correlation between the findings of TAs US and the occurrence and severity of eye involvement in newly diagnosed, active GCA. US identifies edematous wall swelling, whereas histology displays cell infiltrates and granulomas. Visual complications appeared less frequently if proximal arm large-vessel GCA was present. (axillary arteries were affected)
[40][28].
For this reason, and because ophthalmological complications are frequent in GCA, we always have to exam by duplex ultrasonography the orbital (retro-bulbar) vessels in patients with known GCA or in cases of unilateral, acute, painless, and severe loss of vision
[9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17][9][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].
3. Conclusions
US represents a first-line diagnostic investigation for patients presenting with clinical features and biologic data suggesting GCA, taking into account that US has a high sensitivity for identifying the dark halo sign (which represents vessel wall thickening) in the case of a segmental inflammation of large/medium arteries.
For this reason, in our department, US represents a safe and reliable alternative to TAB as a point of care diagnostic tool in the diagnosis of temporal arteritis, or large vessels GCA.
A significant percentage of patients with GCA detected by TAB present ophthalmological features, consisting especially in arteritic form of anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, or central retinal artery thrombotic occlusion.
In acute unilateral CRAO, Color Doppler ultrasonography of the retrobulbar vessels observes a severely diminished or absent blood flow in the CRA of the clinically affected eye, with the normal flow in the homolateral PCAs and OA.
In acute unilateral A-AION, Color Doppler ultrasonography of the retrobulbar vessels reveals a severely diminished or absent blood flow in the PCAs of the clinically affected eye, with normal flow in the homolateral CRA and OA.
Color Doppler US of intraorbital arteries in NA-AION indicates that velocities and RI in PCAs are generally preserved in the clinically affected eye.